In a previous article we listed 60 soft skills, which if practised at the workplace, could boost your professional life.
Subjects like financial management, marketing management, HR management can be taught in the classroom and can be studied at home. But not soft skills. Soft skills are acquired and experienced on the spot and cannot be developed by merely reading textbooks.
The soft skills you gain will equip you to excel in your professional life and in your personal life. It is a continuous learning process.
The 60 soft skills mentioned can be classified into corporate skills, employability skills and life skills. In some parts of the world like in USA and Australia, soft skills are also known as world skills.
Corporate skills
These are generally CEO level skills, but if you are familiar with them you will be in a position to guide your boss towards success ie working together for a common goal as a team. You can become a courageous follower as mentioned by Ira Chaleff in his award-winning book Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders.
These skills include: ~ Political sensitivity. ~ Business and commercial awareness. ~ Strategic awareness. ~ Understanding funding streams and mechanisms. ~ Information management.~ Organisation and control.~ Team building.~ Communication and persuasion. ~ Networking and public relations.~ Leading change.
Must-read: Annoying your colleagues at work?
Employability skills
These have to be mastered by employable graduates and freshers include communication, team working, leadership, initiative, problem solving, flexibility and enthusiasm.
Every skill helps us to learn one more as they overlap each other.
To quote an example, leadership encompasses a number of other skills including cooperating with others, planning and organising, making decisions and verbal communication. Verbal communication itself involves various means of communication, some of which you may find easier than others -- talking over the phone, making a presentation to a group, explaining something to a person with a more limited understanding of the topic for example.
By improving one skill, you may also improve a number of others. In the context of your career planning and development, they are called career management skillsLife skills These skills are related to the head, heart, hands and health ie highly personal and behavioural skills which reflects our personality and naturally helps in personality development. Source: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/learningandliving/main/tlsmodel.htmlWe manage and think with our head. Resilience, keeping records, making wise use of resources, planning/organising and goal setting are 'head' related managerial functions. Service learning, Critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and learning to learn were related to our thinking processes, which we manage with our head. Functions of the heart are relating to people and caring. How do we relate to people? We relate to people by accepting differences, conflict resolutions, social skills, cooperation and communication. The second function we do through our heart is caring. We care through nurturing relationships, sharing, empathy and concern for others. We give and work through our hands. Community service, volunteering, leadership, responsible citizenship and contributions to group effort -- are our way giving back to society. We work through our marketable skills, teamwork and self-motivation to get the things done. Living and being comes under the functions of health. Healthy lifestyle choices, stress management, disease prevention and personal safety are our prime concerns for better living. Self-esteem, self-responsibility, character, managing feelings and self-discipline must be practiced without fail for our well-being. In a nutshell, the essence of life skills is share well, care well and fare well. Things to do everyday
Follow these ten golden rules and enjoy every moment of living.
~ Greet your family members first thing in the morning. If you are not used to this, they will be surprised with your sudden and nice gesture.~ Greet your peers, subordinates and boss once you enter the office. Smile at even the 'security' personnel standing at the gate, who takes care of your safety. ~ Greet your friends along the way and do not ignore them.~ Continously reciprocate to breed communication. If you do not reciprocate at least with a 'thanks' when you get information or a source on your online network or your offline network, you will not be remembered for a long time. If you are not remembered, you are out of your network. ~ Be a proactive listener and empathise with others to command respect.~ While talking to others, your voice, tone and tenor must be audible and soothing. It should not be aggressive or in a shouting mode. ~ Dress well to suit your profession and to create positive vibes in your workplace. If you are a sales representative, do not go out with printed shirts and jeans, which may turn down your customer. ~ Political and religious comments must be avoided at all costs in the workplace, when you are in a group.~ Your communication should not provoke others.
~ Do not speak ill of others if you can help it.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The top 60 soft skills at work
Amit Kumar did his M Tech from IIT, New Delhi. He has an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. But he still could not get the job of his choice during campus recruitment.
Reason: Blame it on his soft skills. Or rather the lack of them. These include communication, listening, negotiation, etiquette, language skills etc. Hence, he could not compete with his fellow students who got better jobs.
Part II: How to improve your soft skills
Soft skills play a vital role for professional success; they help one to excel in the workplace and their importance cannot be denied in this age of information and knowledge. Good soft skills -- which are in fact scarce -- in the highly competitive corporate world will help you stand out in a milieu of routine job seekers with mediocre skills and talent.
The Smyth County Industry Council, a governing body based in the US, conducted a survey recently. The results of the survey was called the Workforce Profile which found "an across-the-board unanimous profile of skills and characteristics needed to make a good employee." The people most likely to be hired for available jobs have what employers call "soft skills".
Here were some of the findings according to the workforce study:
The most common traits, mentioned by virtually every employer, were:
~ Positive work ethic.
~ Good attitude.
~ Desire to learn and be trained.
Mohan Rao, a technical director with Emmellen Biotech Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mumbai defines a 'good attitude: "It is a behavioural skill, which cannot be taught. However it can be developed through continuous training. It represents the reactive nature of the individual and is about looking at things with the right perspective. You must be ready to solve problems proactively and create win-win situations. And you must be able to take ownership ie responsibility for your actions and lead from the front without calling it quits at the most critical moment."Most of the business leaders observed that they could find workers who have "hard skills" ie the capability to operate machinery or fulfill other tasks, but many potential hires lack the "soft skills" that a company needs. CEOs and human resource managers said they are ready to hire workers who demonstrate a high level of "soft skills" and then train them for the specific jobs available. The ever-changing impact of technology has given hard-skills-only workers a short shelf life.
According to results of the Workforce Profile, (source: www.workforce.com) the more valuable employee is one who can grow and learn as the business changes.
Soft skills "are as important, if not more important, than traditional hard skills to an employer looking to hire -- regardless of industry or job type. This could offer a major breakthrough as educators and training providers seek to develop and cluster training courses to fit business and industry needs."Top 60 soft skillsThe Workforce Profile defined about 60 "soft skills", which employers seek. They are applicable to any field of work, according to the study, and are the "personal traits and skills that employers state are the most important when selecting employees for jobs of any type."1. Math.2. Safety.3. Courtesy.4. Honesty.5. Grammar.6. Reliability.7. Flexibility.8. Team skills.9. Eye contact. 10. Cooperation. 11. Adaptability.12. Follow rules.13. Self-directed.14 Good attitude. 15. Writing skills. 16. Driver's license. 17. Dependability. 18. Advanced math. 19. Self-supervising. 20. Good references. 21. Being drug free. 22. Good attendance. 23. Personal energy. 24. Work experience. 25. Ability to measure. 26. Personal integrity.27. Good work history. 28. Positive work ethic.29. Interpersonal skills. 30. Motivational skills. 31. Valuing education. 32. Personal chemistry. 33. Willingness to learn. 34. Common sense. 35. Critical thinking skills. 36. Knowledge of fractions. 37. Reporting to work on time. 38. Use of rulers and calculators. 39. Good personal appearance. 40. Wanting to do a good job.41. Basic spelling and grammar. 42. Reading and comprehension. 43. Ability to follow regulations. 44. Willingness to be accountable.45. Ability to fill out a job application. 46. Ability to make production quotas.47. Basic manufacturing skills training. 48. Awareness of how business works.49. Staying on the job until it is finished.50. Ability to read and follow instructions.51. Willingness to work second and third shifts. 52. Caring about seeing the company succeed. 53. Understanding what the world is all about. 54. Ability to listen and document what you have heard.55. Commitment to continued training and learning.56. Willingness to take instruction and responsibility.57. Ability to relate to coworkers in a close environment.58. Not expecting to become a supervisor in the first six months.59. Willingness to be a good worker and go beyond the traditional eight-hour day.60. Communication skills with public, fellow employees, supervisors, and customers.
How many soft skills do you possess?
Reason: Blame it on his soft skills. Or rather the lack of them. These include communication, listening, negotiation, etiquette, language skills etc. Hence, he could not compete with his fellow students who got better jobs.
Part II: How to improve your soft skills
Soft skills play a vital role for professional success; they help one to excel in the workplace and their importance cannot be denied in this age of information and knowledge. Good soft skills -- which are in fact scarce -- in the highly competitive corporate world will help you stand out in a milieu of routine job seekers with mediocre skills and talent.
The Smyth County Industry Council, a governing body based in the US, conducted a survey recently. The results of the survey was called the Workforce Profile which found "an across-the-board unanimous profile of skills and characteristics needed to make a good employee." The people most likely to be hired for available jobs have what employers call "soft skills".
Here were some of the findings according to the workforce study:
The most common traits, mentioned by virtually every employer, were:
~ Positive work ethic.
~ Good attitude.
~ Desire to learn and be trained.
Mohan Rao, a technical director with Emmellen Biotech Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mumbai defines a 'good attitude: "It is a behavioural skill, which cannot be taught. However it can be developed through continuous training. It represents the reactive nature of the individual and is about looking at things with the right perspective. You must be ready to solve problems proactively and create win-win situations. And you must be able to take ownership ie responsibility for your actions and lead from the front without calling it quits at the most critical moment."Most of the business leaders observed that they could find workers who have "hard skills" ie the capability to operate machinery or fulfill other tasks, but many potential hires lack the "soft skills" that a company needs. CEOs and human resource managers said they are ready to hire workers who demonstrate a high level of "soft skills" and then train them for the specific jobs available. The ever-changing impact of technology has given hard-skills-only workers a short shelf life.
According to results of the Workforce Profile, (source: www.workforce.com) the more valuable employee is one who can grow and learn as the business changes.
Soft skills "are as important, if not more important, than traditional hard skills to an employer looking to hire -- regardless of industry or job type. This could offer a major breakthrough as educators and training providers seek to develop and cluster training courses to fit business and industry needs."Top 60 soft skillsThe Workforce Profile defined about 60 "soft skills", which employers seek. They are applicable to any field of work, according to the study, and are the "personal traits and skills that employers state are the most important when selecting employees for jobs of any type."1. Math.2. Safety.3. Courtesy.4. Honesty.5. Grammar.6. Reliability.7. Flexibility.8. Team skills.9. Eye contact. 10. Cooperation. 11. Adaptability.12. Follow rules.13. Self-directed.14 Good attitude. 15. Writing skills. 16. Driver's license. 17. Dependability. 18. Advanced math. 19. Self-supervising. 20. Good references. 21. Being drug free. 22. Good attendance. 23. Personal energy. 24. Work experience. 25. Ability to measure. 26. Personal integrity.27. Good work history. 28. Positive work ethic.29. Interpersonal skills. 30. Motivational skills. 31. Valuing education. 32. Personal chemistry. 33. Willingness to learn. 34. Common sense. 35. Critical thinking skills. 36. Knowledge of fractions. 37. Reporting to work on time. 38. Use of rulers and calculators. 39. Good personal appearance. 40. Wanting to do a good job.41. Basic spelling and grammar. 42. Reading and comprehension. 43. Ability to follow regulations. 44. Willingness to be accountable.45. Ability to fill out a job application. 46. Ability to make production quotas.47. Basic manufacturing skills training. 48. Awareness of how business works.49. Staying on the job until it is finished.50. Ability to read and follow instructions.51. Willingness to work second and third shifts. 52. Caring about seeing the company succeed. 53. Understanding what the world is all about. 54. Ability to listen and document what you have heard.55. Commitment to continued training and learning.56. Willingness to take instruction and responsibility.57. Ability to relate to coworkers in a close environment.58. Not expecting to become a supervisor in the first six months.59. Willingness to be a good worker and go beyond the traditional eight-hour day.60. Communication skills with public, fellow employees, supervisors, and customers.
How many soft skills do you possess?
Make teamwork 'work' for you
The Indian cricket team has often had amazing individual contributors. Its performance has, however, not matched that of the excellent performers within the team. Compare this to the ragtag team in the movie Lagaan who, because of the sheer power of teamwork, were able to defeat the seasoned players in the opposing team.
'Teamwork' was probably one of the first words in management jargon to be overused and quickly become a cliche. And, like most cliched words and phrases, at the heart of the concept lies a powerful truth -- teamwork works and it works wonders.
After the Second World War, Japan was defeated and humiliated; two of their cities razed by powerful atom bombs. It was a country you probably wouldn't bet your money on in 1950. Yet, Japan rose from the ashes. In the decades following World War II, it became the third largest economy in the world. This, despite the fact that it does not have any great natural resources and is rocked by earthquakes and tsunamis.
Japanese companies went on to give tough competition to the tsars of automobile and electronics industry. The 'Made in Japan' symbol suddenly stood for best in quality. American consumers, forgetting the bitterness of Pearl Harbor and the Second World War, were choosing Japanese products over American ones.
This led to a spate of studies into why Japanese companies were outperforming their counterparts in the West. The studies, while identifying numerous socioeconomic and geopolitical factors, identified two intangible traits which gave an edge to the Japanese -- Quality and Teamwork.
Let us try and understand some basic attitudes that would help you become a more effective team member:
What's bigger -- your ego or the team goal?
It seems like an easy call, but many people find it amazingly tough. Teamwork, more than anything else, is a mindset. And it is extremely difficult for us to change our focus from ourselves as individuals to what the team is trying to do.
Most of the time, we are so focused on our own experience and feelings that we tend to ignore what the team is trying to do. If you can shift the limelight from yourself to the task at hand, your contribution and value in the team would increase tremendously. Ironically, when you shift your focus to the team's goal, your ego's needs are almost always automatically met.
The best way to get something...
As a team member, what do you want?
Do you want recognition? Give recognition.
Do you want help? Give help.
Depending upon your world view, you might have an opinion about how 'realistic' this insight really is. Here is a suggestion though, try it. When you 'fight' for recognition or trust or resources, you reaffirm to yourself that there isn't enough of it to go around, leading to a deficient experience.
When you give what you want freely, you tell yourself there is enough of it and manifest that in your team as well.
Your team members really want...
In an organisational context, team members usually have two needs. The first is a need for motivation. The second is the need for competence. Any team member would contribute their best if they want to contribute (motivation) and if they can contribute (competence).
For example: in a game of cricket, I will perform best if I can play the game well (competence) and if I am motivated to perform (motivation). A good team member would identify my immediate need and try to fulfill it. When you interact with other team members, identify what their main need is and try to fulfill it.
If they need competence, coach them, teach them and guide them. If they need motivation, talk to them, listen to them, empathise with them and understand them. If you give a co-worker what they need, when they need it, you will build yourself a fan following.
Be comfortable with yourself
What does this have to do with teamwork? Everything. Can you imagine yourself implementing the insights mentioned above without confidence or self-awareness?
All of us instinctively dislike pretentious people. This is because we know they are trying to be somebody else. The strong message that sends to us is that they don't really like who they actually are. We tend to pretend or try and be somebody else because we are scared, we want acceptance and we want to be liked. Unfortunately, pretending never works in the long run and it usually doesn't work in the short run either.
The millions of verbal and non-verbal signals that you send will reveal the truth anyway, irrespective of what you project. The only alternative is to really like yourself and be okay with who you are. People who win approval and acceptance are ironically, people who do not care much for it.
If you try to adopt the mindsets described in the article you will enhance the effectiveness of your role as a team-member. You will also become a valued resource and feel more comfortable in team settings.
'Teamwork' was probably one of the first words in management jargon to be overused and quickly become a cliche. And, like most cliched words and phrases, at the heart of the concept lies a powerful truth -- teamwork works and it works wonders.
After the Second World War, Japan was defeated and humiliated; two of their cities razed by powerful atom bombs. It was a country you probably wouldn't bet your money on in 1950. Yet, Japan rose from the ashes. In the decades following World War II, it became the third largest economy in the world. This, despite the fact that it does not have any great natural resources and is rocked by earthquakes and tsunamis.
Japanese companies went on to give tough competition to the tsars of automobile and electronics industry. The 'Made in Japan' symbol suddenly stood for best in quality. American consumers, forgetting the bitterness of Pearl Harbor and the Second World War, were choosing Japanese products over American ones.
This led to a spate of studies into why Japanese companies were outperforming their counterparts in the West. The studies, while identifying numerous socioeconomic and geopolitical factors, identified two intangible traits which gave an edge to the Japanese -- Quality and Teamwork.
Let us try and understand some basic attitudes that would help you become a more effective team member:
What's bigger -- your ego or the team goal?
It seems like an easy call, but many people find it amazingly tough. Teamwork, more than anything else, is a mindset. And it is extremely difficult for us to change our focus from ourselves as individuals to what the team is trying to do.
Most of the time, we are so focused on our own experience and feelings that we tend to ignore what the team is trying to do. If you can shift the limelight from yourself to the task at hand, your contribution and value in the team would increase tremendously. Ironically, when you shift your focus to the team's goal, your ego's needs are almost always automatically met.
The best way to get something...
As a team member, what do you want?
Do you want recognition? Give recognition.
Do you want help? Give help.
Depending upon your world view, you might have an opinion about how 'realistic' this insight really is. Here is a suggestion though, try it. When you 'fight' for recognition or trust or resources, you reaffirm to yourself that there isn't enough of it to go around, leading to a deficient experience.
When you give what you want freely, you tell yourself there is enough of it and manifest that in your team as well.
Your team members really want...
In an organisational context, team members usually have two needs. The first is a need for motivation. The second is the need for competence. Any team member would contribute their best if they want to contribute (motivation) and if they can contribute (competence).
For example: in a game of cricket, I will perform best if I can play the game well (competence) and if I am motivated to perform (motivation). A good team member would identify my immediate need and try to fulfill it. When you interact with other team members, identify what their main need is and try to fulfill it.
If they need competence, coach them, teach them and guide them. If they need motivation, talk to them, listen to them, empathise with them and understand them. If you give a co-worker what they need, when they need it, you will build yourself a fan following.
Be comfortable with yourself
What does this have to do with teamwork? Everything. Can you imagine yourself implementing the insights mentioned above without confidence or self-awareness?
All of us instinctively dislike pretentious people. This is because we know they are trying to be somebody else. The strong message that sends to us is that they don't really like who they actually are. We tend to pretend or try and be somebody else because we are scared, we want acceptance and we want to be liked. Unfortunately, pretending never works in the long run and it usually doesn't work in the short run either.
The millions of verbal and non-verbal signals that you send will reveal the truth anyway, irrespective of what you project. The only alternative is to really like yourself and be okay with who you are. People who win approval and acceptance are ironically, people who do not care much for it.
If you try to adopt the mindsets described in the article you will enhance the effectiveness of your role as a team-member. You will also become a valued resource and feel more comfortable in team settings.
8 ways to get noticed at work
All of us know businesses thrive on strong relationships, so we do all we can to impress our clients and external stakeholders.
In my earlier features -- 6 reasons to thank your clients and How to make clients your allies -- I highlighted the importance of client relationship management.
Most people, however, pay little or no attention to their relationships with peers, bosses and co-workers, though this might seem an obvious thing to do. Here's how you can become the 'Go to' person and get noticed at work.
Walk around for 15 minutes everyday
Offices are like mini-families. Most of us spend up to 11 hours a day in close proximity, sharing the same office space, facilities, break rooms, refrigerators, coffee pots, etc, with our work colleagues. Everyone shares responsibility for making the company work, run smoothly and stay profitable. Keep aside about 15 minutes a day to take a round, greet all the people you know with a smile and exchange pleasantries.
A smile and a warm handshake can wear off the stress most of us go through. Besides, making this effort adds to your desirability factor at work. And, even though it is considered a cliche, do remember smiling is contagious.
Give your colleagues importance
Tell a senior management executive how much you appreciate a certain colleague or subordinate. Do this in that person's presence and you would have won his/ her trust as well; besides, it will make your senior colleague respect you.
Be as specific as you can; for example: "Ram, I want you to know what a great job Vishal did at the presentation yesterday. We are all lucky to have him in the team." Do remember not to sound patronising when you do this.
If a veteran employee is retiring, organise a goodbye party; if someone is being promoted, set up a happy hour with your co-workers. Take initiative and others will take an instant liking to you.
See/ hear your name
Have you thought of contributing to your organisation's newsletter or Website or the journal that gets distributed within the organisation? Since company publications are frequently read by top executives, you'll be increasing your personal PR while establishing yourself as an expert in your chosen area. It's a great way to blow your own trumpet, albeit in a sophisticated fashion.
Join a committee or task force
Join a company-wide committee. Interacting with the same colleagues everyday won't increase your exposure; however, working on a committee with new people gives you an opportunity to make new contacts. It also gives you the opportunity to show your talent and skills to people who matter within the organisation.
Take up a leadership position within a task force and volunteer to lead a project. Behave like a leader and you will move into a leadership position sooner than you imagined.
Mediate a conflict
Workplace conflicts are most common and therein lies the opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and management skills. When done correctly, it can give you amazing results.
If you are trying to resolve a workplace conflict, do not get judgemental and take sides; rather, just serve as a facilitator and establish the ground rules for professional conduct at work. Keep resolution of the conflict in mind at all times; do not get involved or become emotional.
Are you losing your temper a work?
Offer a helping hand
Fill it up. If you've used the last piece of paper in a shared copier or printer, fill it up again even if it means going to the supply room to get another ream. After you've poured the coffee into your cup, take a minute to make another one for the next person in the queue.
Offer to mentor that new recruit at work or share a trade secret -- something that will help a colleague look good before his/ her boss. Often, these small gestures help you build relationships and also spread a good word around about you at the workplace.
Remember -- 'what goes around comes around'. The people you help will advocate for you when it matters the most.
Your best performance
There is nothing that will give you more exposure than getting the employee of the month or quarter award at the Rewards & Recognition event. Since these awards are often given by the top management, it gives you an opportunity to put your name before the key decision makers in your organisation. Remember, you won't get ahead with mediocre performance, regardless of how many other steps you implement.
Distractions at work- Stay focused
Stay updated
Read industry publications, reports and magazines, and be aware of market trends. Your knowledge will reflect when you communicate with colleagues and they would look up to you for advice and information. They will also talk positively about you with other members of the team. There is nothing better than third party publicity, as it establishes you as a thought leader within your organisation.
Read your way to success
Don't shy away from self promotion and PR at work. If done well, it can have a positive impact and help you get ahead at work.
In my earlier features -- 6 reasons to thank your clients and How to make clients your allies -- I highlighted the importance of client relationship management.
Most people, however, pay little or no attention to their relationships with peers, bosses and co-workers, though this might seem an obvious thing to do. Here's how you can become the 'Go to' person and get noticed at work.
Walk around for 15 minutes everyday
Offices are like mini-families. Most of us spend up to 11 hours a day in close proximity, sharing the same office space, facilities, break rooms, refrigerators, coffee pots, etc, with our work colleagues. Everyone shares responsibility for making the company work, run smoothly and stay profitable. Keep aside about 15 minutes a day to take a round, greet all the people you know with a smile and exchange pleasantries.
A smile and a warm handshake can wear off the stress most of us go through. Besides, making this effort adds to your desirability factor at work. And, even though it is considered a cliche, do remember smiling is contagious.
Give your colleagues importance
Tell a senior management executive how much you appreciate a certain colleague or subordinate. Do this in that person's presence and you would have won his/ her trust as well; besides, it will make your senior colleague respect you.
Be as specific as you can; for example: "Ram, I want you to know what a great job Vishal did at the presentation yesterday. We are all lucky to have him in the team." Do remember not to sound patronising when you do this.
If a veteran employee is retiring, organise a goodbye party; if someone is being promoted, set up a happy hour with your co-workers. Take initiative and others will take an instant liking to you.
See/ hear your name
Have you thought of contributing to your organisation's newsletter or Website or the journal that gets distributed within the organisation? Since company publications are frequently read by top executives, you'll be increasing your personal PR while establishing yourself as an expert in your chosen area. It's a great way to blow your own trumpet, albeit in a sophisticated fashion.
Join a committee or task force
Join a company-wide committee. Interacting with the same colleagues everyday won't increase your exposure; however, working on a committee with new people gives you an opportunity to make new contacts. It also gives you the opportunity to show your talent and skills to people who matter within the organisation.
Take up a leadership position within a task force and volunteer to lead a project. Behave like a leader and you will move into a leadership position sooner than you imagined.
Mediate a conflict
Workplace conflicts are most common and therein lies the opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and management skills. When done correctly, it can give you amazing results.
If you are trying to resolve a workplace conflict, do not get judgemental and take sides; rather, just serve as a facilitator and establish the ground rules for professional conduct at work. Keep resolution of the conflict in mind at all times; do not get involved or become emotional.
Are you losing your temper a work?
Offer a helping hand
Fill it up. If you've used the last piece of paper in a shared copier or printer, fill it up again even if it means going to the supply room to get another ream. After you've poured the coffee into your cup, take a minute to make another one for the next person in the queue.
Offer to mentor that new recruit at work or share a trade secret -- something that will help a colleague look good before his/ her boss. Often, these small gestures help you build relationships and also spread a good word around about you at the workplace.
Remember -- 'what goes around comes around'. The people you help will advocate for you when it matters the most.
Your best performance
There is nothing that will give you more exposure than getting the employee of the month or quarter award at the Rewards & Recognition event. Since these awards are often given by the top management, it gives you an opportunity to put your name before the key decision makers in your organisation. Remember, you won't get ahead with mediocre performance, regardless of how many other steps you implement.
Distractions at work- Stay focused
Stay updated
Read industry publications, reports and magazines, and be aware of market trends. Your knowledge will reflect when you communicate with colleagues and they would look up to you for advice and information. They will also talk positively about you with other members of the team. There is nothing better than third party publicity, as it establishes you as a thought leader within your organisation.
Read your way to success
Don't shy away from self promotion and PR at work. If done well, it can have a positive impact and help you get ahead at work.
Starting a business? Say goodbye to your ego
If you want to get into business, forget your ego.
If you don't love to make money, do not start a business.
Yes, a humble attitude and a love for money are very two important attributes of a successful entrepreneur -- according to Subroto Bagchi, author of The High Performance Entrepreneur-Golden Rules For Success In Today's World, and co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting.
To know more, here's an excerpt:
Have a question you want to ask?
Entrepreneurship is about egolessness
Many people want to start companies in the prime of their careers, often after winning accolades as professional managers in large companies. That is great, but when you start your own company, you must know that you leave your past behind.That is easier said that done.
A persons's corporate success often comes from the power of the chair he sits on. He often underestimates how much he is an extension of that artefact. So, when that person steps out, the world repositions him without his knowing.People have a hard time coping with the attendant loss of identity. The day you step out of the collared existence of a blue-chip company, you are a mongrel. The first thing you have to do is to forage and run and duck and breed and forage some more.
In all this foraging, you will come up against strangers. Some will love you for reasons you will never be able to fathom. Some will be brutal with you.
I remember fondly a meeting with an irate customer. He demanded that I see him immediately and I took a late-night flight from New York all the way to California and showed up at the appointed time. I stood outside his glass door while he remained busy on the phone for a full forty-five minutes -- all the time knowing very well that I was standing there. When he finally showed me in, he did not apologize. The one-hour meeting was largely a one-sided rebuke. He did not offer me a glass of water or a coffee. After I came out, for a fleeting moment, I felt hurt. This man, in my past life would have had to take an appointment to see me --that is what my ego informed me. In the very next moment I realized that this was a set-up destiny to prune me.
I am sure when a rose bush is pruned, it does not like the experience. But without the pruning, it will not give great blooms. In the early years of setting up shop, one has to budget for a lot of pruning.
Sales people learn this early in their careers. Sometimes with reason and sometimes quite mindlessly, people keep them waiting, shut the door on them, or are otherwise rude. As you grow up, you learn to deal with such responses, one way being not to take things personally. Even service engineers learn to deal with rejection. But most people who come from other areas of expertise, specially senior people, become quite shaken when they face such experiences. The worst thing that you could do is return the volley. Sometimes, life is just testing your ability to weather storms. Even if you are entrepreneur material, possessing patience, resilience, empathy and politeness in very difficult situations, the sense of rejection can lead to occasional self-pity. That is the last thing you need in such situations, to even think, 'when I was a senior executive at my last organization, this man would not dare deal with me like this.' The 'senior executive' and your 'last organization' are past and best treated as fiction. This man is the current reality and is best treated as someone who may be holding the key to your future.
One day, very early in our existence, I went to General Motors (GM) with Sandeep Sabharwal, at that time a sales director in the US, to make a sales presentation. The fact of the matter is that GM's IT outsourcing runs into billions of dollars and every large IT services company camps inside and outside GM's Detroit office. The giant EDS, a business and technology solutions company, was born out of GM. And here was I, with less than 500 people and under $20 million in size, making a spirited pitch to explain why we were good enough for them. After a half-hour of involved presentation, I asked the gentleman from the purchase department what he thought of our proposal. He cleared his throat and said. 'You are so small that GM could chew you and spit you out before you knew it'. I laughed, but inside it hurt.
Sandeep and I stepped out, brought ourselves brownbag lunches and headed out to the next port of call. We were to meet someone at the Automobile Association of America (AAA). It took us some serious ego massages to be able to repeat the dog-and-pony show at the AAA, where too, in all probability, the prospect was ready to chew us up and throw us out. As we settled into the conference room with some effort to raise the spirit, I again started to explain who MindTree was and what it was about. To my surprise, the client just took over and told us that he knew about us and how high in his esteem we were as an organization. He had learnt all about us from his previous stint at Citibank, during which he had come to India as part of a delegation. He had met Ashok very briefly and was absolutely sold on MindTree. It was balm on a bruised ago after the rejection at GM. Sandeep and I told ourselves that our man at the AAA was the reality and the gentleman at GM was just another bad sales call.
Shortly after, I learnt that the gentleman at AAA had left his job. Another corporate reorganization! That part, as of today, we are still to do business with AAA. The gentleman at GM is probably still there somewhere but through some other opening, we actually do business with one of the GM companies. So, acceptance and rejection are equally transitory, result in equally unpredictable outcomes and must be treated with equanimity, without involving your ego in the results.
Finally, another point about egolessness. Till yesterday, you flew business class, had a secretary make appointments for you and checked in at the choicest hotels. When you start out on your own, for a long time you will have to forget all tat.
Investor money is meant to bring in customers, build and deliver products and services and generate cash before you start leading a life of such luxury. So, being economical with your expenses becomes critical to success. Six years into MindTree, none of us fly business class -- with the exception of Ashok. All of us pick hotels at $50 or less on priceline.com whenever we travel overseas.
While we do all that, our colleagues whom we left behind in earlier organization are entitled to great creature comforts. We know that postponed gratification is the essence of ownership. Hence, we do not compare ourselves with what we have left behind.
Entrepreneurs love money
If you do not love to make money, do not start a business. You will hear that many times over from me.
I meet a lot of people who love technology, so they want to start a company. I meet a lot of people who tell me that they have earned enough in their life and now want to set up a company to 'give something back'. None of these people will ever make great entrepreneurs. Sometimes, we think love for money is all about spending power. Some people have disdain for money because they associate money with being consumerist. In the hands of a creator of wealth, it is not always so. Some people use wealth to build more wealth. Some people like to make money so that they can change the state of things around them. Some enjoy the recognition and some just get a sense of high.
Some people have a deep need to build a legacy and see wealth as the way to do so. John D. Rockefeller's wealth created many legacies in many walks of life. The most memorable contribution made by him was the Rockefeller Foundation that started in 1913. In 2004, the foundation's assets stood at $2.4 billion, and in that year it disbursed grants, fellowships and programmatic funds worth $124 million. Jamsetji N. Tata, born in a family of clerics, seeded a business empire in 1859, just two years after India's first war of independence. In 2004 his Tata empire stood at $12.8 billion in size, and spanned 93 companies in seven businesses.
A lesser known fact is that 65.8 per cent of the empire is owned by charitable trusts. The Bill and Melinda Gartes Foundation is arguably the world's second richest charitable organization with assets that stood at $26.9 billion in 2006. In each of these instances, the founders were guided by a sense of legacy. It became the deep driving desire behind growing their enterprise so as to make their names remembered by posterity. Without affection for wealth, men like Rockefeller, Gates and Tata could not have created their legacy.
In the Hindu pantheon, wealth is granted by a goddess named Lakshmi. She is extremely jealous and possessive. She does not come to those who treat her as if she is incidental. Even if you manage to bring her in on some pretext, mythology has it that she flees at the smallest act of neglect. So, if someone says money is not my prime motivation, know that the goddess is listening.
If you don't love to make money, do not start a business.
Yes, a humble attitude and a love for money are very two important attributes of a successful entrepreneur -- according to Subroto Bagchi, author of The High Performance Entrepreneur-Golden Rules For Success In Today's World, and co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting.
To know more, here's an excerpt:
Have a question you want to ask?
Entrepreneurship is about egolessness
Many people want to start companies in the prime of their careers, often after winning accolades as professional managers in large companies. That is great, but when you start your own company, you must know that you leave your past behind.That is easier said that done.
A persons's corporate success often comes from the power of the chair he sits on. He often underestimates how much he is an extension of that artefact. So, when that person steps out, the world repositions him without his knowing.People have a hard time coping with the attendant loss of identity. The day you step out of the collared existence of a blue-chip company, you are a mongrel. The first thing you have to do is to forage and run and duck and breed and forage some more.
In all this foraging, you will come up against strangers. Some will love you for reasons you will never be able to fathom. Some will be brutal with you.
I remember fondly a meeting with an irate customer. He demanded that I see him immediately and I took a late-night flight from New York all the way to California and showed up at the appointed time. I stood outside his glass door while he remained busy on the phone for a full forty-five minutes -- all the time knowing very well that I was standing there. When he finally showed me in, he did not apologize. The one-hour meeting was largely a one-sided rebuke. He did not offer me a glass of water or a coffee. After I came out, for a fleeting moment, I felt hurt. This man, in my past life would have had to take an appointment to see me --that is what my ego informed me. In the very next moment I realized that this was a set-up destiny to prune me.
I am sure when a rose bush is pruned, it does not like the experience. But without the pruning, it will not give great blooms. In the early years of setting up shop, one has to budget for a lot of pruning.
Sales people learn this early in their careers. Sometimes with reason and sometimes quite mindlessly, people keep them waiting, shut the door on them, or are otherwise rude. As you grow up, you learn to deal with such responses, one way being not to take things personally. Even service engineers learn to deal with rejection. But most people who come from other areas of expertise, specially senior people, become quite shaken when they face such experiences. The worst thing that you could do is return the volley. Sometimes, life is just testing your ability to weather storms. Even if you are entrepreneur material, possessing patience, resilience, empathy and politeness in very difficult situations, the sense of rejection can lead to occasional self-pity. That is the last thing you need in such situations, to even think, 'when I was a senior executive at my last organization, this man would not dare deal with me like this.' The 'senior executive' and your 'last organization' are past and best treated as fiction. This man is the current reality and is best treated as someone who may be holding the key to your future.
One day, very early in our existence, I went to General Motors (GM) with Sandeep Sabharwal, at that time a sales director in the US, to make a sales presentation. The fact of the matter is that GM's IT outsourcing runs into billions of dollars and every large IT services company camps inside and outside GM's Detroit office. The giant EDS, a business and technology solutions company, was born out of GM. And here was I, with less than 500 people and under $20 million in size, making a spirited pitch to explain why we were good enough for them. After a half-hour of involved presentation, I asked the gentleman from the purchase department what he thought of our proposal. He cleared his throat and said. 'You are so small that GM could chew you and spit you out before you knew it'. I laughed, but inside it hurt.
Sandeep and I stepped out, brought ourselves brownbag lunches and headed out to the next port of call. We were to meet someone at the Automobile Association of America (AAA). It took us some serious ego massages to be able to repeat the dog-and-pony show at the AAA, where too, in all probability, the prospect was ready to chew us up and throw us out. As we settled into the conference room with some effort to raise the spirit, I again started to explain who MindTree was and what it was about. To my surprise, the client just took over and told us that he knew about us and how high in his esteem we were as an organization. He had learnt all about us from his previous stint at Citibank, during which he had come to India as part of a delegation. He had met Ashok very briefly and was absolutely sold on MindTree. It was balm on a bruised ago after the rejection at GM. Sandeep and I told ourselves that our man at the AAA was the reality and the gentleman at GM was just another bad sales call.
Shortly after, I learnt that the gentleman at AAA had left his job. Another corporate reorganization! That part, as of today, we are still to do business with AAA. The gentleman at GM is probably still there somewhere but through some other opening, we actually do business with one of the GM companies. So, acceptance and rejection are equally transitory, result in equally unpredictable outcomes and must be treated with equanimity, without involving your ego in the results.
Finally, another point about egolessness. Till yesterday, you flew business class, had a secretary make appointments for you and checked in at the choicest hotels. When you start out on your own, for a long time you will have to forget all tat.
Investor money is meant to bring in customers, build and deliver products and services and generate cash before you start leading a life of such luxury. So, being economical with your expenses becomes critical to success. Six years into MindTree, none of us fly business class -- with the exception of Ashok. All of us pick hotels at $50 or less on priceline.com whenever we travel overseas.
While we do all that, our colleagues whom we left behind in earlier organization are entitled to great creature comforts. We know that postponed gratification is the essence of ownership. Hence, we do not compare ourselves with what we have left behind.
Entrepreneurs love money
If you do not love to make money, do not start a business. You will hear that many times over from me.
I meet a lot of people who love technology, so they want to start a company. I meet a lot of people who tell me that they have earned enough in their life and now want to set up a company to 'give something back'. None of these people will ever make great entrepreneurs. Sometimes, we think love for money is all about spending power. Some people have disdain for money because they associate money with being consumerist. In the hands of a creator of wealth, it is not always so. Some people use wealth to build more wealth. Some people like to make money so that they can change the state of things around them. Some enjoy the recognition and some just get a sense of high.
Some people have a deep need to build a legacy and see wealth as the way to do so. John D. Rockefeller's wealth created many legacies in many walks of life. The most memorable contribution made by him was the Rockefeller Foundation that started in 1913. In 2004, the foundation's assets stood at $2.4 billion, and in that year it disbursed grants, fellowships and programmatic funds worth $124 million. Jamsetji N. Tata, born in a family of clerics, seeded a business empire in 1859, just two years after India's first war of independence. In 2004 his Tata empire stood at $12.8 billion in size, and spanned 93 companies in seven businesses.
A lesser known fact is that 65.8 per cent of the empire is owned by charitable trusts. The Bill and Melinda Gartes Foundation is arguably the world's second richest charitable organization with assets that stood at $26.9 billion in 2006. In each of these instances, the founders were guided by a sense of legacy. It became the deep driving desire behind growing their enterprise so as to make their names remembered by posterity. Without affection for wealth, men like Rockefeller, Gates and Tata could not have created their legacy.
In the Hindu pantheon, wealth is granted by a goddess named Lakshmi. She is extremely jealous and possessive. She does not come to those who treat her as if she is incidental. Even if you manage to bring her in on some pretext, mythology has it that she flees at the smallest act of neglect. So, if someone says money is not my prime motivation, know that the goddess is listening.
Entrepreneurship = 60 hours of work
What makes a great entrepreneur?
Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting tries to answer this question in his book The High Performance Entrepreneur-Golden Rules For Success In Today's World.
He writes: 'Entrepreneurship requires the ability to read patterns on the wall, flexibility and an uncanny ability to seize the moment.' He also mentions that the minimum number of hours an entrepreneur must put in, a week, is 60 hours. In reality this figure is closer to 70.
An excerpt:
Have a question you want to ask?
Entrepreneurs work hard and are extremely goal oriented How do we quantify hard work? When I was working at Wipro, my last assignment was to work for chairman Azim Premji as corporate vice president, mission: quality. This was preceded by three other jobs in the organization. In the course of each, I had made a mark. I always used to think that I worked hard.
So, when I was being considered for the position, Premji asked me, how many hours a week do you put in? Not a superfluous question, this. The man measures and tracks the number of hours he works every week. He does not expect everyone in the organization to work as hard as himself. But he has figured out the minimum number of hours a person must be comfortable working in order to be part of his team. That number is a minimum of 60 hours a week, in reality closer to 70. Premji average 80 hours a week. That is hard work. But just so we know, Premji never asks someone to change holiday plans, once these have been approved, never recalls someone on vacation.
Ashok Soota, chairman and managing director of MindTree, works as hard. He measures the number of days he is on travel every year. That number, when he was 62 was an average of 140 days a year. It does not mean that he is a workaholic with no life outside of work. He settles his vacation dates at the beginning of the year and these are non-negotiable. At least one vacation in the year involves a mountain trek or a snorkeling trip during which we do not contact him. Ashok's self-discipline and hard work rub off on every senior person in the organization. At the next level, a 70-hour workweek and an average 140 days of travel has been the way for all of us since MindTree was born.
Along with hard work, comes the ability to work unsupervised. It is a critical requirement of entrepreneurship. As a paid professional, often someone can blame the system for not providing either the direction or the resources. As an entrepreneur, you no longer have that latitude. You have to work hard, very hard.
That is why venture capitalists have coined the term 'sweat equity', the ownership that comes by the sweat of your brows.
Entrepreneurs are flexible, opportunistic and recognize the power of 'emergence'
I love this story about IBM and its founder Thomas Watson, Sr. that I heard Peter Drucker narrate. It was 1934 or '35. IBM had built the first accounting machines for banks but in the Depression years, no bank was buying anything. IBM was on the brink of bankruptcy. Watson's wife forced him to accompany her to a social event where he was seated next to a middle-aged lady.
While talking with her, Watson described to her the machine IBM had built. It turned out that the lady was in-charge of the library system in New York City. She told Watson that they were in complete disarray, unable to manage their books, and told him that she would need half a dozen of these! Next day, he sold her five of the machines.
Until that moment, Watson had never thought of his computing devices as machines for tracking books.
That one sale pulled IBM from the brink of bankruptcy.
Had it not been for Watson's capability to go with the emergent flow of events -- moving from accounting machines to the recognition that he could make general purpose computers -- IBM would not be what it is today. We all know that the essence of entrepreneurial ability is about building a future and living in it. Sometimes, it is about 'willing' a course for the enterprise. Yet, things do not always go the way you plan. Destiny tests you all the time, plays pranks and shows tiny openings in a moss-covered brick wall behind which often a whole new world awaits.
When we started MindTree and were a no-name entity in the US, a chance meeting took place with a man called Larry Kinder who had just moved in as CIO of Avis. We won an assignment to build consensus between two groups of Avis managers on the future of their on-line reservation system. A team from MindTree, led by Erik Mann, who is one of our best consultants, delivered well. Consequently, we moved on to win the technical design for re-architecting Avis.Com. Then we built the on-line reservation system. Today, the system handles $1 billion worth of transactions at Avis. In the course of following up on that small opening at Avis, we saw three CIOs come and go and then came a CEO who even wanted us out of the door. We survived all those changes and focused on building value, one day at a time.
Many analysts ask me how we won Avis. One morning Joe King -- an early member of the MindTree team and currently a senior vice president of our US operations -- called Larry Kinder's office at 7 in the morning. That is called the 'golden hour'. It is a direct marketer's dream time. The golden hour is when a senior executive has come in but his secretary has not -- someone who is paid to block unwanted callers. Larry picked up the phone that day, listened to Joe's pitch and agreed to see us. I am sure he was used to a hundred such unsolicited calls-this was the heyday of the Internet boom. I often ask myself, what would have happened if Larry had not been in office that day? Why did he have to pay attention to Joe? What if he had dismissed that one call?
Providence is very powerful in our journeys and entrepreneurs must take room for her. It is not always what you bring to the table. Sometimes, it is an unexplainable turn of events that changes your course. From a small assignment for Larry in 1999, in 2006 MindTree did $15 million worth of business for the whole of the Cendant Group that owns Avis and learnt enough about the travel industry to start a vertical focused on it.
After Larry Kinder moved to a larger role a Cendant, due to turbulence in the organization, things became difficult for us. At the Avis end, a turnaround CIO named Raj Rawal took over. As it often happens in times of corporate transition, Raj had received mixed messages about our capability, role and contributions. My first meeting with him was not in happy circumstances. Yet, the moment I met Raj something about him told me that I could bet everything for this man. We hit it off and under his leadership, the reorganization and our role in it got sorted out. Our relationship grew. In time, Raj moved on and eventually took over as CIO at Burger King. As he settled into his new job, the phone rang at my desk.
In 1999, we had started the company with the vision to be focused on two businesses: IT consulting and software services, and R&D services. The former was for building Internet-based applications and on the R&D side, we wanted to work on providing solutions in the telecom domain. In just about a year, there was a dotcom bust and the telecom domain just about vanished.
On the IT services side, we had to rapidly move into other areas like Supply Chain, Data-warehousing, Mainframe-based Application Management Services (AMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). None of these words existed in the original business plan we had written. On the R&D side, we created new verticals like Semiconductors, Appliances, Industrial Automation and Avionics, Storage Technologies and Computing Platforms. Again, these were things we never thought we would dabble in. All that had to be done without losing the original position of strength, all that had to be done in real time and by taking all our people along with us.
Nine out of ten companies born at the same thing as us, anywhere in the world, do not exist today. Entrepreneurship requires the ability to read patterns on the wall, flexibility and an uncanny ability to seize the moment.
Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting tries to answer this question in his book The High Performance Entrepreneur-Golden Rules For Success In Today's World.
He writes: 'Entrepreneurship requires the ability to read patterns on the wall, flexibility and an uncanny ability to seize the moment.' He also mentions that the minimum number of hours an entrepreneur must put in, a week, is 60 hours. In reality this figure is closer to 70.
An excerpt:
Have a question you want to ask?
Entrepreneurs work hard and are extremely goal oriented How do we quantify hard work? When I was working at Wipro, my last assignment was to work for chairman Azim Premji as corporate vice president, mission: quality. This was preceded by three other jobs in the organization. In the course of each, I had made a mark. I always used to think that I worked hard.
So, when I was being considered for the position, Premji asked me, how many hours a week do you put in? Not a superfluous question, this. The man measures and tracks the number of hours he works every week. He does not expect everyone in the organization to work as hard as himself. But he has figured out the minimum number of hours a person must be comfortable working in order to be part of his team. That number is a minimum of 60 hours a week, in reality closer to 70. Premji average 80 hours a week. That is hard work. But just so we know, Premji never asks someone to change holiday plans, once these have been approved, never recalls someone on vacation.
Ashok Soota, chairman and managing director of MindTree, works as hard. He measures the number of days he is on travel every year. That number, when he was 62 was an average of 140 days a year. It does not mean that he is a workaholic with no life outside of work. He settles his vacation dates at the beginning of the year and these are non-negotiable. At least one vacation in the year involves a mountain trek or a snorkeling trip during which we do not contact him. Ashok's self-discipline and hard work rub off on every senior person in the organization. At the next level, a 70-hour workweek and an average 140 days of travel has been the way for all of us since MindTree was born.
Along with hard work, comes the ability to work unsupervised. It is a critical requirement of entrepreneurship. As a paid professional, often someone can blame the system for not providing either the direction or the resources. As an entrepreneur, you no longer have that latitude. You have to work hard, very hard.
That is why venture capitalists have coined the term 'sweat equity', the ownership that comes by the sweat of your brows.
Entrepreneurs are flexible, opportunistic and recognize the power of 'emergence'
I love this story about IBM and its founder Thomas Watson, Sr. that I heard Peter Drucker narrate. It was 1934 or '35. IBM had built the first accounting machines for banks but in the Depression years, no bank was buying anything. IBM was on the brink of bankruptcy. Watson's wife forced him to accompany her to a social event where he was seated next to a middle-aged lady.
While talking with her, Watson described to her the machine IBM had built. It turned out that the lady was in-charge of the library system in New York City. She told Watson that they were in complete disarray, unable to manage their books, and told him that she would need half a dozen of these! Next day, he sold her five of the machines.
Until that moment, Watson had never thought of his computing devices as machines for tracking books.
That one sale pulled IBM from the brink of bankruptcy.
Had it not been for Watson's capability to go with the emergent flow of events -- moving from accounting machines to the recognition that he could make general purpose computers -- IBM would not be what it is today. We all know that the essence of entrepreneurial ability is about building a future and living in it. Sometimes, it is about 'willing' a course for the enterprise. Yet, things do not always go the way you plan. Destiny tests you all the time, plays pranks and shows tiny openings in a moss-covered brick wall behind which often a whole new world awaits.
When we started MindTree and were a no-name entity in the US, a chance meeting took place with a man called Larry Kinder who had just moved in as CIO of Avis. We won an assignment to build consensus between two groups of Avis managers on the future of their on-line reservation system. A team from MindTree, led by Erik Mann, who is one of our best consultants, delivered well. Consequently, we moved on to win the technical design for re-architecting Avis.Com. Then we built the on-line reservation system. Today, the system handles $1 billion worth of transactions at Avis. In the course of following up on that small opening at Avis, we saw three CIOs come and go and then came a CEO who even wanted us out of the door. We survived all those changes and focused on building value, one day at a time.
Many analysts ask me how we won Avis. One morning Joe King -- an early member of the MindTree team and currently a senior vice president of our US operations -- called Larry Kinder's office at 7 in the morning. That is called the 'golden hour'. It is a direct marketer's dream time. The golden hour is when a senior executive has come in but his secretary has not -- someone who is paid to block unwanted callers. Larry picked up the phone that day, listened to Joe's pitch and agreed to see us. I am sure he was used to a hundred such unsolicited calls-this was the heyday of the Internet boom. I often ask myself, what would have happened if Larry had not been in office that day? Why did he have to pay attention to Joe? What if he had dismissed that one call?
Providence is very powerful in our journeys and entrepreneurs must take room for her. It is not always what you bring to the table. Sometimes, it is an unexplainable turn of events that changes your course. From a small assignment for Larry in 1999, in 2006 MindTree did $15 million worth of business for the whole of the Cendant Group that owns Avis and learnt enough about the travel industry to start a vertical focused on it.
After Larry Kinder moved to a larger role a Cendant, due to turbulence in the organization, things became difficult for us. At the Avis end, a turnaround CIO named Raj Rawal took over. As it often happens in times of corporate transition, Raj had received mixed messages about our capability, role and contributions. My first meeting with him was not in happy circumstances. Yet, the moment I met Raj something about him told me that I could bet everything for this man. We hit it off and under his leadership, the reorganization and our role in it got sorted out. Our relationship grew. In time, Raj moved on and eventually took over as CIO at Burger King. As he settled into his new job, the phone rang at my desk.
In 1999, we had started the company with the vision to be focused on two businesses: IT consulting and software services, and R&D services. The former was for building Internet-based applications and on the R&D side, we wanted to work on providing solutions in the telecom domain. In just about a year, there was a dotcom bust and the telecom domain just about vanished.
On the IT services side, we had to rapidly move into other areas like Supply Chain, Data-warehousing, Mainframe-based Application Management Services (AMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). None of these words existed in the original business plan we had written. On the R&D side, we created new verticals like Semiconductors, Appliances, Industrial Automation and Avionics, Storage Technologies and Computing Platforms. Again, these were things we never thought we would dabble in. All that had to be done without losing the original position of strength, all that had to be done in real time and by taking all our people along with us.
Nine out of ten companies born at the same thing as us, anywhere in the world, do not exist today. Entrepreneurship requires the ability to read patterns on the wall, flexibility and an uncanny ability to seize the moment.
Got what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
Think you have it in you to become a successful entrepreneur?
According to Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting, self-confidence is the most important attribute that a person must have to become a successful entrepreneur.
He writes in his book The High Performance Entrepreneur: Golden Rules For Success In Today's World: 'You cannot show me a person who does not believe in herself and yet is a successful entrepreneur. '
The book provides a peek into the personal and team charcateristics that result in high-performance entrepreneurship.
An excerpt:
Have a question you want to ask?
It is interesting that before getting down to writing this book, the subject never occurred to me. Is there something like an entrepreneurial profile? I have not come across any significant body of work that concisely proposes the subject, not have I seen a psychometric test that could tell us whether any of us is entrepreneur material or not. Is there something in common between GE's Thomas Alva Edison, Microsoft's Bill Gates, the Tata's Jamsetji Tata, Dell's Michael Dell, Wal-Mart's Sam Walton and Sony's Akio Morita? When we look at their lives closely, we do see some important traits. Anyone wanting to venture out should assess whether or not of characteristics without which venturing out may not be advisable. Yet, I must caution, there are exceptions to every rule. But, exceptions they are.
What every entrepreneur MUST know
Self-confidence: It is the # 1 attribute
The foremost attribute of people who become entrepreneurs is self-confidence. I would even argue that there are no exception to this rule. You cannot show me a person who does not believe in herself and yet is a successful entrepreneur. However small may be the size of the endeavour, self-confidence is the most critical ingredient of success. What is self-confidence? It is difficult to define it, but most people will be able to judge whether they have it by doing a little introspection.
It is something that either you have or do not, at a given point in time. The reason I am using the qualifier is that it is possible to build self-confidence and it is equally possible to lose it due to circumstances.However, if at the time of starting out on your own you do not have a sustained phase of self-confidence, I would advise against venturing out. Wait for the right time.
Self-confidence can come from personal experience. As a little boy of six, I had gone to visit my maternal uncle. It was a time of great festivity in Berhampur, in West Bengal, where they lived. It was time for Durga Puja and in every locality, the idol of Durga was instated. We spent most of our time hanging around the community idol and there I found an older boy selling balloons. For some reason, he offered me apprenticeship. Without knowing what I was getting into, I accepted. To my delight, I found people quite willing to buy from me. It was quite easy and I made quite a bit of money. But when it was time to return home, I became worried. How would I explain the source of my income? What if my mother got angry with me for selling balloons? For a six-year-old who has done something without prior permission, this can be a huge issue. I had liked the whole experience of selling someone a balloon and having a repeat customer when a mother or a sister of a kid returned for more was exhilarating.
Selling balloons is a value-added activity. You buy the balloons, you breathe air into them, you carry them in a lot and you talk price with real customers. I do not quite remember how I handled the issue at home, but the next day, I was back in business.
From then on when I look back at my life, I see a series of things that told me. I could do it. I would sign up for sports and debating and theatre and music and any other contest going on. It baffled me when I was thrown out of an audition for the school's annual day celebrations. I was so musically deaf that I did not know why they were rejecting me. So what? I had no shame in trying one more time in another school the next year.
By the time I was thirteen, my family had moved to another town. For some reason, I did not like the school there. I convinced everyone at home that I needed to go back to my old school. Leaving them behind, I headed back. My father, who had retired by then, finally agreed to come and stay with me till I completed the high school term. I was setting my directions --not someone else.
As a child, I was asthmatic, but I did not let that come in the way of physical activity. At eighteen, I got selected for parachute jumping as a cadet in the National Cadet Corps and trained with the Indian Army for two months. During the rigorous training, there were times I thought I would die. I never told anyone that I was asthmatic. They would not have selected me if I had. But the daily regimen of army exercise, their generous diet and the eventual five jumps cured my asthma.
When I came back, I felt I had become an adult and needed a sweetheart. So, at nineteen, I found her-all of sixteen years --got her to agree to be my beloved and promptly notified everyone at home. In India of 1975, you did such things at your own risk.
In 1976, I graduated from college and joined the local university for my Masters. Sixty days through the course, I decided that it was a waste of time. Moreover, I did not want to be a burden on my two brothers, who were supporting retired parents, another brother and me. So, I talked to my professor, left college and took up the job of a clerk in a government office. Only after getting my appointment letter did I notify my family that I had given up college.
A year after, I found my first real job, as a management trainee in DCM, at that time India's seventh largest business house. Once I got there, I worked my way up. During all this and at all of twenty-two, I figured out that I had to marry my sweetheart, and did so. In the process, I irked my in-laws and also jumped the queue of one immediate elder brother and a dozen older cousins. Not the practice in my generation. But who cared?
There is a reason why I am sharing these personal details with my readers. Looking back, these incidents at different points in time till me the level of my own self-confidence.If you looked back at your life, you would be able to see many small things, significant nonetheless, that hold the key. Strung together, they show your level of self-confidence.
To determine your entrepreneurial streak, ask yourself if you tried out unusual things, and whether you enjoyed them.
Did you take the important decisions in your life or did someone else invariably take them for you?
Did you enjoy the process, irrespective of the outcome?
How well did you handle small adversities and who took decisions for you at that time?
Did you ever feel helpless?
Did you get out of the situation by taking your own decisions or did you allow the situation to determine the course?
Can you make friends with a stranger?
Do you know your physical and mental limitations? Do you think you can work to overcome them?
Do you feel comfortable in talking about yourself?
Do you feel comfortable asking others for help?
Does the act of buying and selling excite you?
Do you like meeting people?
Do you see things to completion?
Entrepreneurs value their sense of freedom, but they are also very disciplined.
First of all, a clarification. Most successful career managers value their sense of freedom. In fact, organizations that recognize this and are willing to pay the price for it, breed a very special kind of manager, one who is like an entrepreneur in his area of operation.
All my life, both on the personal and the professional fronts, I have enjoyed being free to set my goals and create and work towards my own work plan and take my own decisions I like taking instructions from more competent people and my customers. But I do not like someone telling me how to go about doing my work. I work best when I am given what is called a `porous boundary'. When I look back at all the jobs that I did well, I see a common thread. Each one allowed me an enormous amount of freedom to do what I wanted to do.
This, however, comes with great responsibility. One is responsible for ensuring that one's stakeholders are delivered a beneficial outcome, if not always, at least most of the time. One is responsible, particularly, for customers and employees. Freedom is not lack of answerability. Many people mistake freedom with the absence of accountability. Freedom to me is the ability to explore and settle options the way I think is suitable and the ability to work within porous boundaries.
Sometimes people think that freedom for a business person is about deciding for yourself when to come and go, who to serve or not, how much to pay yourself, how much to able to spend on entertainment, choosing the hotel you want to stay at or accounting for a personal trip as official.None of these are about freedom. If you ask people who know, they will tell you that such attributes ate severely looked down upon by successful entrepreneurs.
A good entrepreneur is a highly disciplined person.
Freedom to such an individual is an inner need for space in which the person can create greater value without interference. That process of creating greater value often involves risks, of trying creative ideas to stay ahead. He does not enjoy someone pulling him from behind or asking for a progress report by breathing down his neck every now and then.
This does not mean entrepreneurs are not accountable.
At MindTree, people routinely question us on policies, issues and directions. Every month, Ashok Soota, chairman of the company, sends out an electronic update called Snapshots. Every quarter, we meet all MindTree Minds for what is known as 'What's on your mind' and people put us on the mat. Every quarter, the board reviews and questions us-five of the nine members on the board are external directors who pore over an average 100 pages of reports and ask detailed and often uncomfortable questions on strategy and direction. In addition to all this, we are answerable to the government agencies and financial institutions of every country in which we operate. And, of course, we are answerable to the analysts who track us, press persons who seek our views and write about us, industry associations whose members we are. We are answerable for high-value purchases to even our suppliers and last but not the least, in a very real sense, we are answerable to our customers.
So, what is left? And what is this talk about freedom?
Freedom to an entrepreneur is the ability to choose a line of business and set goals consistent with stakeholder ambitions. Freedom is the ability to write and revise a business plan. Freedom is the ability to make a decision on a given product and service strategy. Freedom is about the ability to choose from whom you want to take money, on what terms. Freedom is the ability to decide whom you want to hire for what job. Freedom is the ability to settle policy that will govern the internal working of the organization. Freedom is the ability to say that the debate rests here and the decision begins.
Freedom is also about reaping the risks and the rewards that come from all this, but within the articulated guidelines of a business.
According to Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting, self-confidence is the most important attribute that a person must have to become a successful entrepreneur.
He writes in his book The High Performance Entrepreneur: Golden Rules For Success In Today's World: 'You cannot show me a person who does not believe in herself and yet is a successful entrepreneur. '
The book provides a peek into the personal and team charcateristics that result in high-performance entrepreneurship.
An excerpt:
Have a question you want to ask?
It is interesting that before getting down to writing this book, the subject never occurred to me. Is there something like an entrepreneurial profile? I have not come across any significant body of work that concisely proposes the subject, not have I seen a psychometric test that could tell us whether any of us is entrepreneur material or not. Is there something in common between GE's Thomas Alva Edison, Microsoft's Bill Gates, the Tata's Jamsetji Tata, Dell's Michael Dell, Wal-Mart's Sam Walton and Sony's Akio Morita? When we look at their lives closely, we do see some important traits. Anyone wanting to venture out should assess whether or not of characteristics without which venturing out may not be advisable. Yet, I must caution, there are exceptions to every rule. But, exceptions they are.
What every entrepreneur MUST know
Self-confidence: It is the # 1 attribute
The foremost attribute of people who become entrepreneurs is self-confidence. I would even argue that there are no exception to this rule. You cannot show me a person who does not believe in herself and yet is a successful entrepreneur. However small may be the size of the endeavour, self-confidence is the most critical ingredient of success. What is self-confidence? It is difficult to define it, but most people will be able to judge whether they have it by doing a little introspection.
It is something that either you have or do not, at a given point in time. The reason I am using the qualifier is that it is possible to build self-confidence and it is equally possible to lose it due to circumstances.However, if at the time of starting out on your own you do not have a sustained phase of self-confidence, I would advise against venturing out. Wait for the right time.
Self-confidence can come from personal experience. As a little boy of six, I had gone to visit my maternal uncle. It was a time of great festivity in Berhampur, in West Bengal, where they lived. It was time for Durga Puja and in every locality, the idol of Durga was instated. We spent most of our time hanging around the community idol and there I found an older boy selling balloons. For some reason, he offered me apprenticeship. Without knowing what I was getting into, I accepted. To my delight, I found people quite willing to buy from me. It was quite easy and I made quite a bit of money. But when it was time to return home, I became worried. How would I explain the source of my income? What if my mother got angry with me for selling balloons? For a six-year-old who has done something without prior permission, this can be a huge issue. I had liked the whole experience of selling someone a balloon and having a repeat customer when a mother or a sister of a kid returned for more was exhilarating.
Selling balloons is a value-added activity. You buy the balloons, you breathe air into them, you carry them in a lot and you talk price with real customers. I do not quite remember how I handled the issue at home, but the next day, I was back in business.
From then on when I look back at my life, I see a series of things that told me. I could do it. I would sign up for sports and debating and theatre and music and any other contest going on. It baffled me when I was thrown out of an audition for the school's annual day celebrations. I was so musically deaf that I did not know why they were rejecting me. So what? I had no shame in trying one more time in another school the next year.
By the time I was thirteen, my family had moved to another town. For some reason, I did not like the school there. I convinced everyone at home that I needed to go back to my old school. Leaving them behind, I headed back. My father, who had retired by then, finally agreed to come and stay with me till I completed the high school term. I was setting my directions --not someone else.
As a child, I was asthmatic, but I did not let that come in the way of physical activity. At eighteen, I got selected for parachute jumping as a cadet in the National Cadet Corps and trained with the Indian Army for two months. During the rigorous training, there were times I thought I would die. I never told anyone that I was asthmatic. They would not have selected me if I had. But the daily regimen of army exercise, their generous diet and the eventual five jumps cured my asthma.
When I came back, I felt I had become an adult and needed a sweetheart. So, at nineteen, I found her-all of sixteen years --got her to agree to be my beloved and promptly notified everyone at home. In India of 1975, you did such things at your own risk.
In 1976, I graduated from college and joined the local university for my Masters. Sixty days through the course, I decided that it was a waste of time. Moreover, I did not want to be a burden on my two brothers, who were supporting retired parents, another brother and me. So, I talked to my professor, left college and took up the job of a clerk in a government office. Only after getting my appointment letter did I notify my family that I had given up college.
A year after, I found my first real job, as a management trainee in DCM, at that time India's seventh largest business house. Once I got there, I worked my way up. During all this and at all of twenty-two, I figured out that I had to marry my sweetheart, and did so. In the process, I irked my in-laws and also jumped the queue of one immediate elder brother and a dozen older cousins. Not the practice in my generation. But who cared?
There is a reason why I am sharing these personal details with my readers. Looking back, these incidents at different points in time till me the level of my own self-confidence.If you looked back at your life, you would be able to see many small things, significant nonetheless, that hold the key. Strung together, they show your level of self-confidence.
To determine your entrepreneurial streak, ask yourself if you tried out unusual things, and whether you enjoyed them.
Did you take the important decisions in your life or did someone else invariably take them for you?
Did you enjoy the process, irrespective of the outcome?
How well did you handle small adversities and who took decisions for you at that time?
Did you ever feel helpless?
Did you get out of the situation by taking your own decisions or did you allow the situation to determine the course?
Can you make friends with a stranger?
Do you know your physical and mental limitations? Do you think you can work to overcome them?
Do you feel comfortable in talking about yourself?
Do you feel comfortable asking others for help?
Does the act of buying and selling excite you?
Do you like meeting people?
Do you see things to completion?
Entrepreneurs value their sense of freedom, but they are also very disciplined.
First of all, a clarification. Most successful career managers value their sense of freedom. In fact, organizations that recognize this and are willing to pay the price for it, breed a very special kind of manager, one who is like an entrepreneur in his area of operation.
All my life, both on the personal and the professional fronts, I have enjoyed being free to set my goals and create and work towards my own work plan and take my own decisions I like taking instructions from more competent people and my customers. But I do not like someone telling me how to go about doing my work. I work best when I am given what is called a `porous boundary'. When I look back at all the jobs that I did well, I see a common thread. Each one allowed me an enormous amount of freedom to do what I wanted to do.
This, however, comes with great responsibility. One is responsible for ensuring that one's stakeholders are delivered a beneficial outcome, if not always, at least most of the time. One is responsible, particularly, for customers and employees. Freedom is not lack of answerability. Many people mistake freedom with the absence of accountability. Freedom to me is the ability to explore and settle options the way I think is suitable and the ability to work within porous boundaries.
Sometimes people think that freedom for a business person is about deciding for yourself when to come and go, who to serve or not, how much to pay yourself, how much to able to spend on entertainment, choosing the hotel you want to stay at or accounting for a personal trip as official.None of these are about freedom. If you ask people who know, they will tell you that such attributes ate severely looked down upon by successful entrepreneurs.
A good entrepreneur is a highly disciplined person.
Freedom to such an individual is an inner need for space in which the person can create greater value without interference. That process of creating greater value often involves risks, of trying creative ideas to stay ahead. He does not enjoy someone pulling him from behind or asking for a progress report by breathing down his neck every now and then.
This does not mean entrepreneurs are not accountable.
At MindTree, people routinely question us on policies, issues and directions. Every month, Ashok Soota, chairman of the company, sends out an electronic update called Snapshots. Every quarter, we meet all MindTree Minds for what is known as 'What's on your mind' and people put us on the mat. Every quarter, the board reviews and questions us-five of the nine members on the board are external directors who pore over an average 100 pages of reports and ask detailed and often uncomfortable questions on strategy and direction. In addition to all this, we are answerable to the government agencies and financial institutions of every country in which we operate. And, of course, we are answerable to the analysts who track us, press persons who seek our views and write about us, industry associations whose members we are. We are answerable for high-value purchases to even our suppliers and last but not the least, in a very real sense, we are answerable to our customers.
So, what is left? And what is this talk about freedom?
Freedom to an entrepreneur is the ability to choose a line of business and set goals consistent with stakeholder ambitions. Freedom is the ability to write and revise a business plan. Freedom is the ability to make a decision on a given product and service strategy. Freedom is about the ability to choose from whom you want to take money, on what terms. Freedom is the ability to decide whom you want to hire for what job. Freedom is the ability to settle policy that will govern the internal working of the organization. Freedom is the ability to say that the debate rests here and the decision begins.
Freedom is also about reaping the risks and the rewards that come from all this, but within the articulated guidelines of a business.
'How my mother made it'
My mother Susan Alias is an entrepreneur (at least in a small way). She runs a beauty parlour at Avadi, a suburb in Chennai. Today, her parlour stands first in the midst of an umpteen number of parlours that have sprung up over the years. Be it delivery of services or quality of work, she stays at number one, catering to all kinds of customers, new and old.Starting small
My mother was a graduate, and a qualified teacher. Wanting to start up something of her own, she first enrolled herself in a 45-day beauty course. With small children in tow, she struggled with it. What helped was she had the full support of my father.Setting it up
After completion of the course, she wanted to set up a parlour in Avadi but didn't have the capital. Fifteen years ago, Avadi was a conservative suburb where ladies had other things to worry about, let alone experimenting or enhancing their beauty. So, naturally, when my parents approached a bank for a loan, the manager pessimistically asked, 'How can the beauty business survive in a place like Avadi?'
With no banks willing to loan them the initial capital, my parents put together all the savings they had and set up shop. As part of their marketing strategy, on the day of inauguration, my father's collegues and their wives were invited. This was the only way of letting people know there was a beauty parlour in Avadi.SurvivalThe initial months were testing times. There was not much revenue. My mother had kept an assistant. In those early days, she was scared of servicing customers and preferred to let her assistant attend to them. When the assistant had to leave following a personal setback, however, my mother began attending to customers herself. She soon realised she was good at it, and the number of customers began to increase.Change of location
Although business was fine, it wasn't growing very well. This prompted my parents to think of moving to the centre of Avadi. It was the best decision they made, as profit margins increased to a great extent. Meanwhile, a number of parlours had come up in Avadi. My mother remained unfazed, and continued to work with dedication.Sacrifices
Every success comes with some sacrifices. My mother had to forego weddings, family vacations and school functions. She also had her share of health problems in the process. Today, she has 4-5 five assistants to help her out. She also updates her knowledge constantly by attending seminars and short-term courses. From her success and hard work come these pearls of wisdom:
Give 101 per cent to any enterprise you are setting up.
Make sacrifices if required. Those moments may be lost forever, but they will be never be fruitless in the long run.
Constantly update your knowledge to keep up with changing times.
Spend time in the enterprise. Know your customers and attend to their individual needs.
My mother was a graduate, and a qualified teacher. Wanting to start up something of her own, she first enrolled herself in a 45-day beauty course. With small children in tow, she struggled with it. What helped was she had the full support of my father.Setting it up
After completion of the course, she wanted to set up a parlour in Avadi but didn't have the capital. Fifteen years ago, Avadi was a conservative suburb where ladies had other things to worry about, let alone experimenting or enhancing their beauty. So, naturally, when my parents approached a bank for a loan, the manager pessimistically asked, 'How can the beauty business survive in a place like Avadi?'
With no banks willing to loan them the initial capital, my parents put together all the savings they had and set up shop. As part of their marketing strategy, on the day of inauguration, my father's collegues and their wives were invited. This was the only way of letting people know there was a beauty parlour in Avadi.SurvivalThe initial months were testing times. There was not much revenue. My mother had kept an assistant. In those early days, she was scared of servicing customers and preferred to let her assistant attend to them. When the assistant had to leave following a personal setback, however, my mother began attending to customers herself. She soon realised she was good at it, and the number of customers began to increase.Change of location
Although business was fine, it wasn't growing very well. This prompted my parents to think of moving to the centre of Avadi. It was the best decision they made, as profit margins increased to a great extent. Meanwhile, a number of parlours had come up in Avadi. My mother remained unfazed, and continued to work with dedication.Sacrifices
Every success comes with some sacrifices. My mother had to forego weddings, family vacations and school functions. She also had her share of health problems in the process. Today, she has 4-5 five assistants to help her out. She also updates her knowledge constantly by attending seminars and short-term courses. From her success and hard work come these pearls of wisdom:
Give 101 per cent to any enterprise you are setting up.
Make sacrifices if required. Those moments may be lost forever, but they will be never be fruitless in the long run.
Constantly update your knowledge to keep up with changing times.
Spend time in the enterprise. Know your customers and attend to their individual needs.
When confidence pays...
This story starts with my mother pronouncing 'ton' as rhyming with 'dawn' rather than 'done' in front of a class full of snobbish 14-year-olds. They laughed behind her back, but in front of me, like they had laughed when she pronouned 'wood' as 'ood'. I had gone home and tried teaching her to say the words correctly for hours. But words palatised a certain way for nearly 30 years of your life stay that way -- with a vengeance.
My mother didn't sweat over it. She gave up trying to pronounce the letter 'w' and, the next day, instead of taking a science class, she told us a story. She was born in a family that had migrated to Kolkata from Bangladesh during the riots. And suddenly their own mother tongue had became alien to them. 'Pani' had to be changed to 'jol' and they had to stop saying 'laban' and start saying 'nun'. She went to a Bengali medium school where she had to relearn her own mother tongue. Picking up a foreign language left behind by the colonisers was quite out of the question.
Her father was with the Kolkata police when the Naxals were heaving havoc. Everyday, he would lock his wife and three children indoors and go off to work, not knowing if they would see each other alive at the end of the day. Gills of fish, which people don't even feed their pet cats nowadays, used to be their staple food. Yes, life was tough. But Mamma was tougher.
With her mispronounced 'w's and 'v's, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry, and a doctorate in plastics and rubber techonology with a full scholarship, plus a stipend. She married a man in the hospitality industry, who had to entertain uber-sophisticated socialites with all their arrogance and superficiality displayed in full glory.
And it is here, for the first time, that my mother stumbled with her wrong stress-unstress patterns of the English language. However, even after being victim to sniggering and tell-tale looks everytime she said 'bayolawgy' instead of 'biology', or hesitated over the meaning of 'faculty', she did not quietly recede into one corner and brood over her deficiency.
She was confident she knew the composition of the alloys these people ate out of, and the matrix structure of the fibres that they were clothed in better than anyone else in the room, so then why should she be quiet? Instead, she heard, she observed and she learnt that 'chocolate' was to be pronounced with a stress on the first syllable only, and that 'femme fatale' was a compliment to a lady looking ravishing enough to have the heart of any man she wanted.
So what if every now and then her tongue slipped and she mispronounced a word? She was never afraid to speak. "And it doesn't matter really, does it? I am here to teach you chemistry and as long as I don't give you the wrong atomic number for carbon, we should be fine," my mother ended her story. And no one ever laughed again.
She has moved on from teaching a class of teenagers who didn't know any better, to being a lecturer in an engineering college and is fast moving towards professorship. Mamma knew what she was good at, and what she was not she strived to be good at, but she was never afraid.
I am so proud of you, and I love you 'tawns', Mammam!
My mother didn't sweat over it. She gave up trying to pronounce the letter 'w' and, the next day, instead of taking a science class, she told us a story. She was born in a family that had migrated to Kolkata from Bangladesh during the riots. And suddenly their own mother tongue had became alien to them. 'Pani' had to be changed to 'jol' and they had to stop saying 'laban' and start saying 'nun'. She went to a Bengali medium school where she had to relearn her own mother tongue. Picking up a foreign language left behind by the colonisers was quite out of the question.
Her father was with the Kolkata police when the Naxals were heaving havoc. Everyday, he would lock his wife and three children indoors and go off to work, not knowing if they would see each other alive at the end of the day. Gills of fish, which people don't even feed their pet cats nowadays, used to be their staple food. Yes, life was tough. But Mamma was tougher.
With her mispronounced 'w's and 'v's, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry, and a doctorate in plastics and rubber techonology with a full scholarship, plus a stipend. She married a man in the hospitality industry, who had to entertain uber-sophisticated socialites with all their arrogance and superficiality displayed in full glory.
And it is here, for the first time, that my mother stumbled with her wrong stress-unstress patterns of the English language. However, even after being victim to sniggering and tell-tale looks everytime she said 'bayolawgy' instead of 'biology', or hesitated over the meaning of 'faculty', she did not quietly recede into one corner and brood over her deficiency.
She was confident she knew the composition of the alloys these people ate out of, and the matrix structure of the fibres that they were clothed in better than anyone else in the room, so then why should she be quiet? Instead, she heard, she observed and she learnt that 'chocolate' was to be pronounced with a stress on the first syllable only, and that 'femme fatale' was a compliment to a lady looking ravishing enough to have the heart of any man she wanted.
So what if every now and then her tongue slipped and she mispronounced a word? She was never afraid to speak. "And it doesn't matter really, does it? I am here to teach you chemistry and as long as I don't give you the wrong atomic number for carbon, we should be fine," my mother ended her story. And no one ever laughed again.
She has moved on from teaching a class of teenagers who didn't know any better, to being a lecturer in an engineering college and is fast moving towards professorship. Mamma knew what she was good at, and what she was not she strived to be good at, but she was never afraid.
I am so proud of you, and I love you 'tawns', Mammam!
How my mother ensured my success in life
The marriage between my mother, Laxmi, and my father, Vaidyanathan Iyer, was a shortlived one. Soon after my birth in the year 1960, my father left us all one night while we were sleeping, never to return.
It fell to my mother to look after us children -- I had an older sister Malini and a brother, Ramnath. With the sole bread winner of the family gone, my illiterate mother shifted us from Kerala to our maternal uncle's house in Hyderabad for awhile.
Our uncle was fond of us and looked after us well, but my mother did not think it fit to burden him with the responsibility of four additional mouths to feed -- he already had six children of his own to look after. Having come to terms with her lonely status as a single mother, she then shifted us to another relative's home in Nagpur.Here, my illiterate mother began to work hard to keep heart and soul together. She used to teach young girls music, and took up a job as a maid in the neighbourhood homes, doing menial housework.
When confidence pays...
Mother would go from house to house in the hot sun, the heat from the ground burning her feet, as she could afford neither chappals nor shoes to wear. She worked night and day, and her pay, by the time the year 1970 rolled around, was a mere Rs 50. But she still wanted all three of us to have a decent education. She would have us borrow books from others and then copy them by hand overnight. In those days, there were no photocopying machines; and if there had been, we wouldn't have been able to afford them. All three of us children were studious, but without my father around to finance our education, it was tough on my mother.
In the face of such difficulties, my elder sister Malini passed her HSC examinations, and took up a job in a private organisation. She then married a Telugu boy who worked with RBI. Ramnath was able to complete his HSC and then did a diploma in electrical engineering; he married our cousin, my uncle's daughter.
As for me, I completed my HSC and took up a job in Nagpur itself, but studied alongside. I later married a Maharashtrian boy -- it was my mother's decision that I do so, because she did not have money to offer as dowry as per Hindu customs.
My mother, the entrepreneur
My dear mother passed away in the year 1997, but it is because of her that our family today is well-settled. Malini retired as a senior officer from LIC, but passed away some time ago as well. Her sons, however, are settled in the US and doing very well for themselves. My brother retired as superintendent engineer from MSEB Koradi, and his son is also in the US. As for me, I am a chief executive in a public limited corporation.
We rose from nothing in life, and it is only because of my mother's desire to bring us up well that we did.
It fell to my mother to look after us children -- I had an older sister Malini and a brother, Ramnath. With the sole bread winner of the family gone, my illiterate mother shifted us from Kerala to our maternal uncle's house in Hyderabad for awhile.
Our uncle was fond of us and looked after us well, but my mother did not think it fit to burden him with the responsibility of four additional mouths to feed -- he already had six children of his own to look after. Having come to terms with her lonely status as a single mother, she then shifted us to another relative's home in Nagpur.Here, my illiterate mother began to work hard to keep heart and soul together. She used to teach young girls music, and took up a job as a maid in the neighbourhood homes, doing menial housework.
When confidence pays...
Mother would go from house to house in the hot sun, the heat from the ground burning her feet, as she could afford neither chappals nor shoes to wear. She worked night and day, and her pay, by the time the year 1970 rolled around, was a mere Rs 50. But she still wanted all three of us to have a decent education. She would have us borrow books from others and then copy them by hand overnight. In those days, there were no photocopying machines; and if there had been, we wouldn't have been able to afford them. All three of us children were studious, but without my father around to finance our education, it was tough on my mother.
In the face of such difficulties, my elder sister Malini passed her HSC examinations, and took up a job in a private organisation. She then married a Telugu boy who worked with RBI. Ramnath was able to complete his HSC and then did a diploma in electrical engineering; he married our cousin, my uncle's daughter.
As for me, I completed my HSC and took up a job in Nagpur itself, but studied alongside. I later married a Maharashtrian boy -- it was my mother's decision that I do so, because she did not have money to offer as dowry as per Hindu customs.
My mother, the entrepreneur
My dear mother passed away in the year 1997, but it is because of her that our family today is well-settled. Malini retired as a senior officer from LIC, but passed away some time ago as well. Her sons, however, are settled in the US and doing very well for themselves. My brother retired as superintendent engineer from MSEB Koradi, and his son is also in the US. As for me, I am a chief executive in a public limited corporation.
We rose from nothing in life, and it is only because of my mother's desire to bring us up well that we did.
Low marks don't necessarily translate into a failed career
With the board exam results staring us in the face, students are overcome with nail-biting nervousness as their career prospects loom large before them.
Many are disappointed with poor grades each year, and are affected severely, to the point of depression and even suicide.
Such students need to know that bad grades are not the end of the world. An MBA is not necessarily everyone's cup of tea -- you can pursue a host of other career options, such as interior designing, jewellery making, or you can even start your own business.
We therefore invite readers who have had a successful career despite academic drawbacks to share their stories with us. If you have been successful in a vocation despite not having fared well academically, tell your story and help others in a similar situation turn their lives around.
Many are disappointed with poor grades each year, and are affected severely, to the point of depression and even suicide.
Such students need to know that bad grades are not the end of the world. An MBA is not necessarily everyone's cup of tea -- you can pursue a host of other career options, such as interior designing, jewellery making, or you can even start your own business.
We therefore invite readers who have had a successful career despite academic drawbacks to share their stories with us. If you have been successful in a vocation despite not having fared well academically, tell your story and help others in a similar situation turn their lives around.
How to deal with workplace negativity
Is your workplace rife with negative vibes? Do you drag your feet to the office hoping for a sudden squall that'll have you headed back home instead of the office where you are destined to encounter hostile colleagues? If your answer is yes, then this article is for you.
Working in an office weighed down by negativity is more common than you think. Which of us doesn't have tales of a co-worker who refused to help even though you were just hours away from a deadline or a teammate who started an ugly rumour about you? Though negativity is usually unavoidable at most workplaces, there are some things you can do to control or influence that negativity.
Look inward
Are you part of the problem? The first thing to do when faced with a problem is to examine your role in it. Once you identify your role, it may be as simple as just tweaking your attitude or taking a more positive view. For instance, you have a colleague that pushes your buttons. Constantly griping about being over-worked or underpaid, he just gets your goat. As a result you spend the rest of the day complaining to friends and co-workers about his attitude and his negativity. In effect, you have become exactly what you thought was the problem.
So, take a step back and make a conscious decision to not let things bother you the way they do.
Communicate to alleviate
The most effective tool when it comes to combating negativity is communication. Open, honest communication can go a long way in gaining the confidence of your seniors and colleagues. When a nasty rumour about you is doing the rounds, instead of cowering behind the cubicle wall, take a more pro-active approach. Confront the rumourmongers and state your case in a confident, yet non-aggressive manner.
Pallavi Pant* has a success story. "My boss and I used to stay in the same area, so we used to travel to and from work together. Before we knew it, the rumour doing the rounds was that we were having an affair," says Pallavi, a sales executive with a BPO. "We ignored it at first, but I asked around and finally found out that my colleague had started the rumour out of spite. So one day, I confronted her and we had it out. Granted we didn't end up much fonder of each other but at least we had our say and now we maintain a respectful distance."
Control your emotions at work
Belling the cat
Negativity could also stem from discontent over the company's policies. If employees are unhappy with a new policy that has been introduced or a change in one they were particularly fond of, chances are they will let the matter simmer over coffee-break conversations. The matter will be discussed in great detail and with even a few solutions thrown in, but as is usually the case, the discussion will stay just that and discontent will just fester.
But the problem here is, simply put, one of how to bell the cat. You and your teammates want a solution but none want to go up to the boss and talk the issue through. And that's just where the problem lies.
When your team finds itself in a similar predicament, it is suggested that all those affected by the change come together and discuss the problem. Try to have a broad-based discussion, attempting to address all sides of the issue: how it affects them, the motivation behind the change and possible solutions or compromises. Once that is done, you might want to vote for one or two spokespersons who will communicate the concerns of the group to the boss or the HR department. Remember, organisations want happy employees and (more often than not) will welcome dialogue on issues or problems employees might have.
It is important, for both you and your organisation, that you make a sincere effort to control negativity in your workplace. After all, your job is a large part of what you do and if your job makes you unhappy, chances are that discontent will flow into other spheres of your life.
6 ways to celebrate your work
Steer clear
Though getting involved might help, sometimes the best strategy is to keep your distance. A negative or pessimistic colleague may just be out to gain sympathy or attention. Don't let it bother you. It takes all sorts, and you'd be better off focussing on the positive people around you than let one sourpuss bring you down.
"One of my colleagues would see the down side to everything," says Meghna Nagpal*, who works at a call centre. "Whether it was team get-togethers or the temperature in the office, the world was just against her! At first I'd try and talk to her, get her to see the lighter side of life. But most times I'd just get dragged down myself. So, after speaking to friends, I just decided to stay away from her. I realised I couldn't change the way she felt and instead I was letting her grey mood bring me down."
So don't be just another sad face in the crowd. Remember, only you are responsible for the way you feel. Don't be afraid of what your colleagues will think of you if you take the lead. As long as your motives are clear and your methods honest, chances are you will win them over in the end while making your office a more positive place to work in.
Working in an office weighed down by negativity is more common than you think. Which of us doesn't have tales of a co-worker who refused to help even though you were just hours away from a deadline or a teammate who started an ugly rumour about you? Though negativity is usually unavoidable at most workplaces, there are some things you can do to control or influence that negativity.
Look inward
Are you part of the problem? The first thing to do when faced with a problem is to examine your role in it. Once you identify your role, it may be as simple as just tweaking your attitude or taking a more positive view. For instance, you have a colleague that pushes your buttons. Constantly griping about being over-worked or underpaid, he just gets your goat. As a result you spend the rest of the day complaining to friends and co-workers about his attitude and his negativity. In effect, you have become exactly what you thought was the problem.
So, take a step back and make a conscious decision to not let things bother you the way they do.
Communicate to alleviate
The most effective tool when it comes to combating negativity is communication. Open, honest communication can go a long way in gaining the confidence of your seniors and colleagues. When a nasty rumour about you is doing the rounds, instead of cowering behind the cubicle wall, take a more pro-active approach. Confront the rumourmongers and state your case in a confident, yet non-aggressive manner.
Pallavi Pant* has a success story. "My boss and I used to stay in the same area, so we used to travel to and from work together. Before we knew it, the rumour doing the rounds was that we were having an affair," says Pallavi, a sales executive with a BPO. "We ignored it at first, but I asked around and finally found out that my colleague had started the rumour out of spite. So one day, I confronted her and we had it out. Granted we didn't end up much fonder of each other but at least we had our say and now we maintain a respectful distance."
Control your emotions at work
Belling the cat
Negativity could also stem from discontent over the company's policies. If employees are unhappy with a new policy that has been introduced or a change in one they were particularly fond of, chances are they will let the matter simmer over coffee-break conversations. The matter will be discussed in great detail and with even a few solutions thrown in, but as is usually the case, the discussion will stay just that and discontent will just fester.
But the problem here is, simply put, one of how to bell the cat. You and your teammates want a solution but none want to go up to the boss and talk the issue through. And that's just where the problem lies.
When your team finds itself in a similar predicament, it is suggested that all those affected by the change come together and discuss the problem. Try to have a broad-based discussion, attempting to address all sides of the issue: how it affects them, the motivation behind the change and possible solutions or compromises. Once that is done, you might want to vote for one or two spokespersons who will communicate the concerns of the group to the boss or the HR department. Remember, organisations want happy employees and (more often than not) will welcome dialogue on issues or problems employees might have.
It is important, for both you and your organisation, that you make a sincere effort to control negativity in your workplace. After all, your job is a large part of what you do and if your job makes you unhappy, chances are that discontent will flow into other spheres of your life.
6 ways to celebrate your work
Steer clear
Though getting involved might help, sometimes the best strategy is to keep your distance. A negative or pessimistic colleague may just be out to gain sympathy or attention. Don't let it bother you. It takes all sorts, and you'd be better off focussing on the positive people around you than let one sourpuss bring you down.
"One of my colleagues would see the down side to everything," says Meghna Nagpal*, who works at a call centre. "Whether it was team get-togethers or the temperature in the office, the world was just against her! At first I'd try and talk to her, get her to see the lighter side of life. But most times I'd just get dragged down myself. So, after speaking to friends, I just decided to stay away from her. I realised I couldn't change the way she felt and instead I was letting her grey mood bring me down."
So don't be just another sad face in the crowd. Remember, only you are responsible for the way you feel. Don't be afraid of what your colleagues will think of you if you take the lead. As long as your motives are clear and your methods honest, chances are you will win them over in the end while making your office a more positive place to work in.
Infosys comes down hard on quitting employees
IT giant Infosys [Get Quote] is having all its employees sign a non-compete clause which states that even after the employee quits the company, he/ she cannot work for any of Infosys' competitors. In fact, the clause allegedly lists by name the top five rival companies -- Tata Consultancy Services [Get Quote], Accenture, IBM Global Services, Cognizant and Wipro [Get Quote].
It also disallows employees from taking up job offers presented them by the organisation's customers for upto six months after quitting, if the employee in question has worked on that particular customer's assignments in the previous one year.
Infosys has justified this clause, saying it is a common practice for companies to safeguard their interests and bind their employees to them. Although such a contract's legal standing is disputed, many employees simply prefer to pay up the penalty when breaching it, rather than face a powerful company's legal team in court.
We're asking you -- do you think such a move on the part of large organisations is justified? Given that hundreds of employees join and leave annually, is it right for big companies to try and bind them by contract? Or is it grossly unfair that an employee has to pay a large sum when deflecting to the employer's competitors?
What is your take on the subject? We want to know, so come share your opinions and experiences with us.
It also disallows employees from taking up job offers presented them by the organisation's customers for upto six months after quitting, if the employee in question has worked on that particular customer's assignments in the previous one year.
Infosys has justified this clause, saying it is a common practice for companies to safeguard their interests and bind their employees to them. Although such a contract's legal standing is disputed, many employees simply prefer to pay up the penalty when breaching it, rather than face a powerful company's legal team in court.
We're asking you -- do you think such a move on the part of large organisations is justified? Given that hundreds of employees join and leave annually, is it right for big companies to try and bind them by contract? Or is it grossly unfair that an employee has to pay a large sum when deflecting to the employer's competitors?
What is your take on the subject? We want to know, so come share your opinions and experiences with us.
Is an engineering degree enough?
With a majority of private engineering college graduates not matching up to industry requirements, the concept of finishing schools is fast catching up in the engineering sector.
A recent study by Nasscom suggests that only a fourth of the 400,000 students graduating every year in the country are employable.
However, the engineering sector is witnessing a robust growth. A recent estimate by Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath reveals that India is poised to become an engineering process outsourcing (EPO) hub. The size of the market is expected to touch $ 30 billion annually by 2015. Also, the demand for EPO has grown at 30-35 percent from 2004 to 2006.
Sectors like defence equipment, aircrafts, automobiles and industrial devices are facing major shortfall of trained engineers, according to various studies. Cashing in on the demand, Kolkata-based Descon Limited has tied up with Delhi's Jaintec Limited for providing computer-aided designing, manufacturing and related-courses to engineering graduates.
The joint-venture company will set up its first campus in Kolkata shortly.
Jaintec Limited plans to tie up with various private and public engineering colleges in the future to widen its reach.
In total, it plans to set up nearly 20 campuses in the next three to five years, with an investment of around Rs 20 crore.
Some of the new campuses would be set up by the newly formed joint venture company, said Anuj Saxena, vice-president, technology, Jaintec Information Systems.
Graduates and diploma holder from mechanical and civil engineering streams are eligible for the course.
The company would be called Jaintec-DESCON Training Solutions.
The alliance would aim to address the problems of human resource development in the engineering sector, S Radhakrishnan, managing director, DESCON, and and Ashish Kumar, CEO, Jaintec said.
Descon said the industrial resurgence of West Bengal had created demand for engineering graduates.
West Bengal, and the country, produced a high number of engineering graduates every year but only a fourth of them were employable as they lacked industry-relevant skills.
In disciplines like civil engineering and mechanical engineering, attributes like ingenuity and designing capabilities are needed, but are lacking in today's engineering graduates, said Descon.
This had led to a supply-demand imbalance which needed to be addressed.
The idea was to leverage on each other's core competence, thus ensuring a steady outflow of project-ready design engineers for the benefit of industry.
A recent study by Nasscom suggests that only a fourth of the 400,000 students graduating every year in the country are employable.
However, the engineering sector is witnessing a robust growth. A recent estimate by Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath reveals that India is poised to become an engineering process outsourcing (EPO) hub. The size of the market is expected to touch $ 30 billion annually by 2015. Also, the demand for EPO has grown at 30-35 percent from 2004 to 2006.
Sectors like defence equipment, aircrafts, automobiles and industrial devices are facing major shortfall of trained engineers, according to various studies. Cashing in on the demand, Kolkata-based Descon Limited has tied up with Delhi's Jaintec Limited for providing computer-aided designing, manufacturing and related-courses to engineering graduates.
The joint-venture company will set up its first campus in Kolkata shortly.
Jaintec Limited plans to tie up with various private and public engineering colleges in the future to widen its reach.
In total, it plans to set up nearly 20 campuses in the next three to five years, with an investment of around Rs 20 crore.
Some of the new campuses would be set up by the newly formed joint venture company, said Anuj Saxena, vice-president, technology, Jaintec Information Systems.
Graduates and diploma holder from mechanical and civil engineering streams are eligible for the course.
The company would be called Jaintec-DESCON Training Solutions.
The alliance would aim to address the problems of human resource development in the engineering sector, S Radhakrishnan, managing director, DESCON, and and Ashish Kumar, CEO, Jaintec said.
Descon said the industrial resurgence of West Bengal had created demand for engineering graduates.
West Bengal, and the country, produced a high number of engineering graduates every year but only a fourth of them were employable as they lacked industry-relevant skills.
In disciplines like civil engineering and mechanical engineering, attributes like ingenuity and designing capabilities are needed, but are lacking in today's engineering graduates, said Descon.
This had led to a supply-demand imbalance which needed to be addressed.
The idea was to leverage on each other's core competence, thus ensuring a steady outflow of project-ready design engineers for the benefit of industry.
'I didn't let my marks affect my life'
As a kid, I was always on the move. It was difficult for me to sit in one place and concentrate on one thing for long. There was so much to do in lovely Goa [Images].
But, because I had a persistent mom and I was fairly intelligent, I managed to score 82% in my SSC exam. I was over the moon; I had never scored so much in all my years in school.
I joined a very prestigious, but studious, college. In a way, my dad -- who was an alumni -- made the decision for me. I would have preferred to join another, 'cooler' college where most of my childhood friends were going.
I was facing tremendous pressure from my family -- they wanted me to do well in my Class XII exams so that I could do my computer engineering from a 'top' engineering college.
In college, I felt rather lonely. I did make a couple of friends, but they were the kind of people who found their happiness at the cost of another person's loss.
I was also carried away by my success in the SSC exams; I thought I would ace the HSC exams. But I hadn't worked hard enough. I only managed a measly 56 per cent overall, with just 48 per cent in Physics-Chemistry-Mathematics. I scored better in English, German and Geography.
Though I had disgraced my family, I did manage to get admission for my BSc course at a good university.
I also joined the National Cadet Corps and made a mark as a cadet. I even passed the National Defence Academy entrance exam but, unfortunately, failed the medical test. This left me depressed. I could not concentrate on my studies and dropped out of my BSc course.
I was 20 years old and did not see a future ahead of me. I had no education, no aim, while my friends were in the second year of their engineering course.
After a while, I set my heart on going to UK to study. I had scored 7.5 in the IELTS exam. Yet, I saw no reason for my family to support me. I had not shown much dedication towards academics and did not come from a rich family that could afford such an education.
But I had reckoned without my family's support. My father mortgaged his insurance policies and got a loan of Rs 5-6 lakhs. On my 21st birthday, I left for the UK to study management and computers.
I took to the UK like a fish to water. My English was very good. Once I was there, I taught myself to think in English only. Most of my friends were English or European and they helped open my eyes to the world.
I worked hard in a pub and paid my tuition fee for the second year myself. I had changed from a naive, chubby boy from a small city in India to a smart, fit, confident person.
Today, five years down the line, I am with a lovely woman, I have a steady job and I earn more than my engineering friends who slog 14 hours a day. I have an offer to study masters in management or HR from Oxford.
I know I am lucky to have supportive parents. I am grateful to my dad for taking that loan. It got me moving and motivated me to work hard. In the UK, I had a difficult time dealing with being broke and with subtle racism, but all this taught me to be a stronger person.
I didn't let my bad HSC grades affect my life. After struggling initially, I became a computer database manager.
Everyone has a chance. The important thing is not be trapped in our middle class mentality. We have to set our own path, work hard, play harder. We shouldn't be a product of our society, but make society a product of us.
*Name changed on request
But, because I had a persistent mom and I was fairly intelligent, I managed to score 82% in my SSC exam. I was over the moon; I had never scored so much in all my years in school.
I joined a very prestigious, but studious, college. In a way, my dad -- who was an alumni -- made the decision for me. I would have preferred to join another, 'cooler' college where most of my childhood friends were going.
I was facing tremendous pressure from my family -- they wanted me to do well in my Class XII exams so that I could do my computer engineering from a 'top' engineering college.
In college, I felt rather lonely. I did make a couple of friends, but they were the kind of people who found their happiness at the cost of another person's loss.
I was also carried away by my success in the SSC exams; I thought I would ace the HSC exams. But I hadn't worked hard enough. I only managed a measly 56 per cent overall, with just 48 per cent in Physics-Chemistry-Mathematics. I scored better in English, German and Geography.
Though I had disgraced my family, I did manage to get admission for my BSc course at a good university.
I also joined the National Cadet Corps and made a mark as a cadet. I even passed the National Defence Academy entrance exam but, unfortunately, failed the medical test. This left me depressed. I could not concentrate on my studies and dropped out of my BSc course.
I was 20 years old and did not see a future ahead of me. I had no education, no aim, while my friends were in the second year of their engineering course.
After a while, I set my heart on going to UK to study. I had scored 7.5 in the IELTS exam. Yet, I saw no reason for my family to support me. I had not shown much dedication towards academics and did not come from a rich family that could afford such an education.
But I had reckoned without my family's support. My father mortgaged his insurance policies and got a loan of Rs 5-6 lakhs. On my 21st birthday, I left for the UK to study management and computers.
I took to the UK like a fish to water. My English was very good. Once I was there, I taught myself to think in English only. Most of my friends were English or European and they helped open my eyes to the world.
I worked hard in a pub and paid my tuition fee for the second year myself. I had changed from a naive, chubby boy from a small city in India to a smart, fit, confident person.
Today, five years down the line, I am with a lovely woman, I have a steady job and I earn more than my engineering friends who slog 14 hours a day. I have an offer to study masters in management or HR from Oxford.
I know I am lucky to have supportive parents. I am grateful to my dad for taking that loan. It got me moving and motivated me to work hard. In the UK, I had a difficult time dealing with being broke and with subtle racism, but all this taught me to be a stronger person.
I didn't let my bad HSC grades affect my life. After struggling initially, I became a computer database manager.
Everyone has a chance. The important thing is not be trapped in our middle class mentality. We have to set our own path, work hard, play harder. We shouldn't be a product of our society, but make society a product of us.
*Name changed on request
'I was 18... and a failure'
We asked Get Ahead readers to send in stories of career success despite academic failure. Here is one such tale of inspiration:
You will have to at least do an MA to even get a school teacher's job. Do you realise what is going to happen to you?"
I've lost count of the number of times this statement has been hurled at me.
I don't know what's wrong with becoming a teacher -- why does everyone make it sound like a job you did if you did not have any other option? And it's not like I was considering becoming a teacher!
I was good at extra curricular activities and got many awards for my school. Unfortunately, however, I just could not cope with the academic part of school.
The mothers of my classmates who got 9 out of 10 in Chemistry would make it a point to ask me: So, how much did you get in Chemistry? I don't know why I would always answer without hesitation: 3 out of 10.
I wasn't arrogant, but I was tired of the humiliation that was heaped on me because I was a bad student.I was born and raised in Bhilai, a small town in Chhattisgarh. Since Bhilai has a steel plant, you will hit an engineer's house every time you throw a stone. If you are not an engineer, or not working towards your engineering degree, you don't have much of a choice. You just have to become a doctor. Any other career choice is totally unacceptable.
But I didn't have the marks to get into an engineering college. And I had always failed in biology, so there was no question of becoming a doctor.
While all my good friends and classmates got into various engineering and medical colleges, I did not have the marks to get into a good college after Class XII. The only choice I had was to do my graduation in Arts in Bhilai itself.
Those were terribly depressing days. Everyone around me mourned my lack of good marks. Everyone lamented over the 'fact' that I did not have a bright future ahead of me. I was 18 years old and they had decided my future. I was declared a failure.
At that point, even I was convinced my future was doomed. But I was not ready to give up just yet. I thought I should ask someone if there was scope for me beyond engineering. I also felt, very strongly, that I should ask this question to someone who was not from Bhilai.
During those days, there was a very popular magazine called the Illustrated Weekly Of India. My parent subscribed to it. Pritish Nandy, who edited the magazine, was an all-time favourite.
I wrote to him and Sherna Gandhy, who was also an editor there, replied on his behalf. She introduced me to mass communication as an option (in my letter, I had mentioned my interest in every other activity besides studies).As a result of that letter, I applied to admission to a course in mass communication from Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai. I actually went through a written test, group discussion and viva and got admission.
Till then, I had never thought there could be an exam where I could fare well. This was my first step towards realising that, to be successful in life, it is not important to achieve what others want you to achieve. You have to know your own strengths, believe in them and the world has plenty to offer.Yes, marks do help you take the initial steps in some professions but marks are the be-all and end-all of life.
I never wanted to be an engineer but I was made to appear for all the PETs and JEEs (entrance exams for engineering colleges). I was made conscious of the fact that, without good marks I could not become an engineer. And, if I did not become an engineer, I had no future.
It is important to know yourself and appreciate what you like and want instead of chasing what is seemingly secure and attractive.
However, I must emphasise that there is no substitute for hard work. I began my career with a nominal salary. It was just enough to pay my working women's hostel fees in Bombay and for basic living and travel expenses. But I compensated my lack of marks with sheer hard work and a willingness to learn. That paid off.Over time, I worked in various leading advertising agencies. Eventually, in 2004, I became a student again and learnt film making at the New York Film Academy. Today, I run my own film production company.
What's most important, however, is that I am happy and I sleep well at night.
You will have to at least do an MA to even get a school teacher's job. Do you realise what is going to happen to you?"
I've lost count of the number of times this statement has been hurled at me.
I don't know what's wrong with becoming a teacher -- why does everyone make it sound like a job you did if you did not have any other option? And it's not like I was considering becoming a teacher!
I was good at extra curricular activities and got many awards for my school. Unfortunately, however, I just could not cope with the academic part of school.
The mothers of my classmates who got 9 out of 10 in Chemistry would make it a point to ask me: So, how much did you get in Chemistry? I don't know why I would always answer without hesitation: 3 out of 10.
I wasn't arrogant, but I was tired of the humiliation that was heaped on me because I was a bad student.I was born and raised in Bhilai, a small town in Chhattisgarh. Since Bhilai has a steel plant, you will hit an engineer's house every time you throw a stone. If you are not an engineer, or not working towards your engineering degree, you don't have much of a choice. You just have to become a doctor. Any other career choice is totally unacceptable.
But I didn't have the marks to get into an engineering college. And I had always failed in biology, so there was no question of becoming a doctor.
While all my good friends and classmates got into various engineering and medical colleges, I did not have the marks to get into a good college after Class XII. The only choice I had was to do my graduation in Arts in Bhilai itself.
Those were terribly depressing days. Everyone around me mourned my lack of good marks. Everyone lamented over the 'fact' that I did not have a bright future ahead of me. I was 18 years old and they had decided my future. I was declared a failure.
At that point, even I was convinced my future was doomed. But I was not ready to give up just yet. I thought I should ask someone if there was scope for me beyond engineering. I also felt, very strongly, that I should ask this question to someone who was not from Bhilai.
During those days, there was a very popular magazine called the Illustrated Weekly Of India. My parent subscribed to it. Pritish Nandy, who edited the magazine, was an all-time favourite.
I wrote to him and Sherna Gandhy, who was also an editor there, replied on his behalf. She introduced me to mass communication as an option (in my letter, I had mentioned my interest in every other activity besides studies).As a result of that letter, I applied to admission to a course in mass communication from Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai. I actually went through a written test, group discussion and viva and got admission.
Till then, I had never thought there could be an exam where I could fare well. This was my first step towards realising that, to be successful in life, it is not important to achieve what others want you to achieve. You have to know your own strengths, believe in them and the world has plenty to offer.Yes, marks do help you take the initial steps in some professions but marks are the be-all and end-all of life.
I never wanted to be an engineer but I was made to appear for all the PETs and JEEs (entrance exams for engineering colleges). I was made conscious of the fact that, without good marks I could not become an engineer. And, if I did not become an engineer, I had no future.
It is important to know yourself and appreciate what you like and want instead of chasing what is seemingly secure and attractive.
However, I must emphasise that there is no substitute for hard work. I began my career with a nominal salary. It was just enough to pay my working women's hostel fees in Bombay and for basic living and travel expenses. But I compensated my lack of marks with sheer hard work and a willingness to learn. That paid off.Over time, I worked in various leading advertising agencies. Eventually, in 2004, I became a student again and learnt film making at the New York Film Academy. Today, I run my own film production company.
What's most important, however, is that I am happy and I sleep well at night.
'Low marks don't mean you've failed'
We asked Get Ahead readers to send in stories of career success despite academic failure. Here is one such tale of inspiration:
I was a fairly good student at school, but somehow failed to get good marks in either Class X or Class XII. While I would score good marks in the terminal exams, the nervousness of the board exams would make me forget all my answers the moment I would see the question paper.
I managed to score exactly 50% in my Class XII exams, which was definitely not sufficient to get admission in any of the good colleges. That was the day I learnt a lesson and decided to not to lack behind my friends in any manner.
I decided to go in for a secretarial practice course from the YMCA. Even before I turned 18, I completed this one year course and was looking for a job. During this period, I had lived my life completely as any college student would and had also earned a professional diploma at the same time.
I managed to get a job as a secretary with the Oberoi Group of Hotels. Since then, there has been no looking back.
In the last nine odd years of my career, I have worked with four different companies. Today, I am manager, operations, with a US-based organisation. I look after their entire operations for Delhi and earn a eight-figure salary.
This journey -- from a Rs 30,000 annual salary to a Rs 10,00,000 annual salary and lots of perks -- has definitely been very exciting. At the same time, I have had to work very hard.
Even though I failed to get good marks, I knew where I had to reach. I did not waste my time in trying achieve what I could not achieve. Instead, I concentrated on my strengths.
I knew my high confidence level and my leadership skills were my assets. I went on learning new things on the job and achieved greater heights in my career. Today, my friends who have studied much more than I have are not earning as much as I do.
I do mean to say studies have no value. But, if you have given it your best shot and have still not been able to score good marks, do not be disappointed. This could be another beginning for you.
Even if you cannot overcome all your weaknesses, weaknesses you can definitely find out what your strengths are. Concentrate on them to moving ahead in your career. Know what you are best at and pursue a career in that field.
Low marks is definitely not the end of this world for anyone... go out and the sky will have no limits for you.
I was a fairly good student at school, but somehow failed to get good marks in either Class X or Class XII. While I would score good marks in the terminal exams, the nervousness of the board exams would make me forget all my answers the moment I would see the question paper.
I managed to score exactly 50% in my Class XII exams, which was definitely not sufficient to get admission in any of the good colleges. That was the day I learnt a lesson and decided to not to lack behind my friends in any manner.
I decided to go in for a secretarial practice course from the YMCA. Even before I turned 18, I completed this one year course and was looking for a job. During this period, I had lived my life completely as any college student would and had also earned a professional diploma at the same time.
I managed to get a job as a secretary with the Oberoi Group of Hotels. Since then, there has been no looking back.
In the last nine odd years of my career, I have worked with four different companies. Today, I am manager, operations, with a US-based organisation. I look after their entire operations for Delhi and earn a eight-figure salary.
This journey -- from a Rs 30,000 annual salary to a Rs 10,00,000 annual salary and lots of perks -- has definitely been very exciting. At the same time, I have had to work very hard.
Even though I failed to get good marks, I knew where I had to reach. I did not waste my time in trying achieve what I could not achieve. Instead, I concentrated on my strengths.
I knew my high confidence level and my leadership skills were my assets. I went on learning new things on the job and achieved greater heights in my career. Today, my friends who have studied much more than I have are not earning as much as I do.
I do mean to say studies have no value. But, if you have given it your best shot and have still not been able to score good marks, do not be disappointed. This could be another beginning for you.
Even if you cannot overcome all your weaknesses, weaknesses you can definitely find out what your strengths are. Concentrate on them to moving ahead in your career. Know what you are best at and pursue a career in that field.
Low marks is definitely not the end of this world for anyone... go out and the sky will have no limits for you.
'To mess up is not the end of the world'
Faring badly in an important exam can be traumatic.
With the Class XII results out, and the Class X results scheduled to be declared soon, many students find themselves under tremendous stress, wondering how they have fared.
In case, you have not done as well as expected, do not be disheartened. Failure (or not doing well as expected), as the old adage goes, is just a stepping stone to success.
We asked Get Ahead readers who had not fared well in their exams to share their success stories with us. Here is what Sathesh Murthy had to say:
I have had my ups and downs in academics.
Till Class VII, I was mediocre. In Class VIII, I was downright pathetic. I had pretty much failed in all my final exam papers (except English). For an unusual reason that year, however, everyone in my grade was automatically promoted. Otherwise, my life could have taken a turn for the worse.
I did exceedingly well in Class X and surprised everyone by coming third or fourth in my school. Since I had not expected to do all that well, I had not applied to any of the top notch colleges.
I did all right in Class XI. Come Class XII, I faced the biggest dilemma of my life. Do I focus on the board exams or prepare for IIT or do both, giving each the importance they required?
Doing the balancing act was never my strength; my decision to give both the board exam and my JEE only proved it once again. I messed up both exams and ended up doing BSc at an evening college.
I don't know whether my family was ashamed of me then because they never let me feel it.
Many of my friends felt I should give IIT another shot the following year. They believed I had a chance.
The fact that I had fared so badly must have affected me in some manner. I did not want to prepare again for JEE and decided to make the most of my BSc instead.
As it turned out, this was not a bad decision. I graduated as a gold medallist, did my MCA and passed out with a gold medal again.
Today, I work for a multinational as a senior manager. When we have our campus hiring drives, the colleges I visit are the ones I would have loved to study in. This gives me immense satisfaction and a great sense of pride.
There is a tried and tested path and no harm in following that. For those who are not so lucky, there is always a different path that leads to success and happiness. The key is to believe in yourself. To keep trying.
To mess up is not the end of the world. To lose hope and confidence is.
Keep that chin up all the time and keep trying.
Sathesh Murthy, 34, is senior manager in a Bangalore-based multinational firm.
With the Class XII results out, and the Class X results scheduled to be declared soon, many students find themselves under tremendous stress, wondering how they have fared.
In case, you have not done as well as expected, do not be disheartened. Failure (or not doing well as expected), as the old adage goes, is just a stepping stone to success.
We asked Get Ahead readers who had not fared well in their exams to share their success stories with us. Here is what Sathesh Murthy had to say:
I have had my ups and downs in academics.
Till Class VII, I was mediocre. In Class VIII, I was downright pathetic. I had pretty much failed in all my final exam papers (except English). For an unusual reason that year, however, everyone in my grade was automatically promoted. Otherwise, my life could have taken a turn for the worse.
I did exceedingly well in Class X and surprised everyone by coming third or fourth in my school. Since I had not expected to do all that well, I had not applied to any of the top notch colleges.
I did all right in Class XI. Come Class XII, I faced the biggest dilemma of my life. Do I focus on the board exams or prepare for IIT or do both, giving each the importance they required?
Doing the balancing act was never my strength; my decision to give both the board exam and my JEE only proved it once again. I messed up both exams and ended up doing BSc at an evening college.
I don't know whether my family was ashamed of me then because they never let me feel it.
Many of my friends felt I should give IIT another shot the following year. They believed I had a chance.
The fact that I had fared so badly must have affected me in some manner. I did not want to prepare again for JEE and decided to make the most of my BSc instead.
As it turned out, this was not a bad decision. I graduated as a gold medallist, did my MCA and passed out with a gold medal again.
Today, I work for a multinational as a senior manager. When we have our campus hiring drives, the colleges I visit are the ones I would have loved to study in. This gives me immense satisfaction and a great sense of pride.
There is a tried and tested path and no harm in following that. For those who are not so lucky, there is always a different path that leads to success and happiness. The key is to believe in yourself. To keep trying.
To mess up is not the end of the world. To lose hope and confidence is.
Keep that chin up all the time and keep trying.
Sathesh Murthy, 34, is senior manager in a Bangalore-based multinational firm.
'Marks are no barometer of a person's ability'
Faring badly in an important exam can be traumatic.
With the Class X and XII results out, many students find themselves under tremendous stress about their career and their future.
In case you have not done as well as expected, do not be disheartened. Failure (or not doing well as expected), as the old adage goes, is just a stepping-stone to success.
We asked Get Ahead readers who had not fared well in their exams to share their success stories with us. Here is what Rohit Daga had to say:
I fared poorly in my graduation (BCom) scoring just 53 per cent. It was quite depressing when friends and family asked me about my marks; it kept me down for quite a while. People, it seemed, judged me based on my marks. At various stages of my career, I tried to get jobs that I knew I could do, but not having first class was a major obstacle. However, this only put the fire in my belly; I was determined to do well.
During my three years of senior college, I spent a lot of time in other activities. I became a distributor of a leading cosmetics company in India. This helped me understand the sales and marketing aspects of business in a very real and practical manner.
I then began investing in equities. That was the turning point of my career. It was just before the dotcom bubble burst, a time when everything was in a state of flux. Having to keep track of what was happening in the business world and why, really opened my mind. I was able to understand how businesses really worked; how what is good for one company might spell disaster for another; and what moves the market -- the policies, capital flows, etc.
I made good profits initially. Then, I over-leveraged and made big losses. That was a time I will not easily forget and that is what made me a stronger person. I subsequently set down some ground rules, which helped me make profits. Those lessons keep me grounded and practical.
I gradually began learning about my family business from my father. I also spent a lot of time reading (business-related magazines, fiction, IT magazines, etc), playing strategy-based computer games and participating in quizzes. All of these activities helped me boost my business acumen and improve my critical thinking.
After graduating, unlike most of my classmates, I initiated a web-based start-up company with a friend. It was named Enterfun (later rechristened Triverge Web Technologies).
I worked full-time for the first three months. Once the work stabilised, I started working part-time and then finally moved to my family business. I learnt the nuances of the business in the 12 months I worked there. Dealing with suppliers, customers and managing employees were among the many aspects I was monitoring and learning.
However, I always wanted to chart out my own career. So, I moved to AXA BS. The 22 months I spent there were fruitful; that's where I found my mentor -- Mr Chatterjee. His guidance was critical to my success, in AXA and outside. He constantly helped me and guided me with suggestions and tips. I had implemented improvements across all the processes of our team, was awarded for my performance and jointly managed the quality of the team.
What my first 3 years of full-time work experience did was provide me with a lot of diverse learning. It made me flexible and open to new ideas. My first start-up failed, but I learnt a lot from it.
I decided to initiate another start-up after AXA. The company would supply air-conditioning components along with maintenance and servicing contracts for the same. My father extended his support. From managing orders to managing people to managing the delivery schedules -- it was fascinating. The venture was profitable and was doing well.
At this point, I decided to pursue what I had always dreamt of -- an MBA.
By my 24th birthday I had seen many ups and downs; had faced success and failure. When I look back on the first phase of my career, I would term it a success. My marks or the lack of it only made me put in extra effort to succeed.
I would spend most of my free time reading about business to keep myself updated. I limited the amount of time I spent on movies, going out, etc. That was the price I had to pay. Looking back, I would say it was worth it. Nothing comes easy, as long as you are prepared to work hard, you can achieve your dreams. I believe that my poor marks were my stepping-stone to success.
In life, we face a lot of challenges and failures. What matters is how you pull yourself up after a fall. Be positive and have faith in yourself!
Rohit Daga, 25, is currently pursuing an MBA in Finance from Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai.
With the Class X and XII results out, many students find themselves under tremendous stress about their career and their future.
In case you have not done as well as expected, do not be disheartened. Failure (or not doing well as expected), as the old adage goes, is just a stepping-stone to success.
We asked Get Ahead readers who had not fared well in their exams to share their success stories with us. Here is what Rohit Daga had to say:
I fared poorly in my graduation (BCom) scoring just 53 per cent. It was quite depressing when friends and family asked me about my marks; it kept me down for quite a while. People, it seemed, judged me based on my marks. At various stages of my career, I tried to get jobs that I knew I could do, but not having first class was a major obstacle. However, this only put the fire in my belly; I was determined to do well.
During my three years of senior college, I spent a lot of time in other activities. I became a distributor of a leading cosmetics company in India. This helped me understand the sales and marketing aspects of business in a very real and practical manner.
I then began investing in equities. That was the turning point of my career. It was just before the dotcom bubble burst, a time when everything was in a state of flux. Having to keep track of what was happening in the business world and why, really opened my mind. I was able to understand how businesses really worked; how what is good for one company might spell disaster for another; and what moves the market -- the policies, capital flows, etc.
I made good profits initially. Then, I over-leveraged and made big losses. That was a time I will not easily forget and that is what made me a stronger person. I subsequently set down some ground rules, which helped me make profits. Those lessons keep me grounded and practical.
I gradually began learning about my family business from my father. I also spent a lot of time reading (business-related magazines, fiction, IT magazines, etc), playing strategy-based computer games and participating in quizzes. All of these activities helped me boost my business acumen and improve my critical thinking.
After graduating, unlike most of my classmates, I initiated a web-based start-up company with a friend. It was named Enterfun (later rechristened Triverge Web Technologies).
I worked full-time for the first three months. Once the work stabilised, I started working part-time and then finally moved to my family business. I learnt the nuances of the business in the 12 months I worked there. Dealing with suppliers, customers and managing employees were among the many aspects I was monitoring and learning.
However, I always wanted to chart out my own career. So, I moved to AXA BS. The 22 months I spent there were fruitful; that's where I found my mentor -- Mr Chatterjee. His guidance was critical to my success, in AXA and outside. He constantly helped me and guided me with suggestions and tips. I had implemented improvements across all the processes of our team, was awarded for my performance and jointly managed the quality of the team.
What my first 3 years of full-time work experience did was provide me with a lot of diverse learning. It made me flexible and open to new ideas. My first start-up failed, but I learnt a lot from it.
I decided to initiate another start-up after AXA. The company would supply air-conditioning components along with maintenance and servicing contracts for the same. My father extended his support. From managing orders to managing people to managing the delivery schedules -- it was fascinating. The venture was profitable and was doing well.
At this point, I decided to pursue what I had always dreamt of -- an MBA.
By my 24th birthday I had seen many ups and downs; had faced success and failure. When I look back on the first phase of my career, I would term it a success. My marks or the lack of it only made me put in extra effort to succeed.
I would spend most of my free time reading about business to keep myself updated. I limited the amount of time I spent on movies, going out, etc. That was the price I had to pay. Looking back, I would say it was worth it. Nothing comes easy, as long as you are prepared to work hard, you can achieve your dreams. I believe that my poor marks were my stepping-stone to success.
In life, we face a lot of challenges and failures. What matters is how you pull yourself up after a fall. Be positive and have faith in yourself!
Rohit Daga, 25, is currently pursuing an MBA in Finance from Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The SSC topper who is hearing-impaired
Silence is golden, but only if you have experienced the noise and din of everyday life. Sixteen-year-old Puja Shah has never experienced the contrast between these two extremes of life. She was born with a hearing impairment that allows her to hear only 10 percent of a normal person's hearing capacity. But even she could clearly hear her success story on Tuesday when she emerged as the topper in the Special Category with 91.69 percent in this year's SSC examination.
"I feel so happy," Puja said.
Puja is a girl of few words. Her hearing condition has left a cruel impact on her ability to speak also. Everyone learns to speak by hearing and repeating certain sounds.But fate never offered this option to Puja and she also accepted it with grace and dignity.
"We were expecting good results but we never ever thought she would become the topper," said Alpa Ketan Shah, Puja's mother. According to her, Puja used to spent at least six to seven hours a day behind her text books, right from the first month in Class X.
"She used to keep herself busy with her projects, assignments and homework and we supported her. Her teachers and classmates used to help her out," Mrs Shah said.
Manisha Arondekar, Principal of S Radhakrishna Vidyalaya said that she will never be able to forget Puja's fighting spirit.
"She never ever got depressed about anything. In fact, Puja accepted every challenge with a smile," she said.
The school had a special resource team comprising faculty members and a special counsellor, who were always ready to help out Puja with her academics and other problems. Puja was given the choice of opting for one language, ie either Hindi or Marathi. She had book binding and typing as alternative subjects.
Puja never shied away from any of the extracurricular activities at school. She used to take part in sports, dance competitions and simple skits.
"I still remember last year's Teacher's Day, when she became the Maths teacher for a day. We have this tradition of celebrating Teacher's Day by making selected students become teachers for a day," Manisha Arondekar added.
When she is not busy hitting her text books, Puja spends time by playing cards with her friends and family members. She is an expert in Rummy, her favourite game. She is also a voracious reader, but with a difference -- she prefers newspapers to books, and is updated on almost all issues, especially the ones taking place in Mumbai's social circles.
"She is very much interested in knowing about film stars, and devours every single word in the Mumbai tabloids, apart from the normal newspapers," Mrs Shah added.
Alpa and her husband Ketan Shah, an electrical engineer, did not know their daughter was born with a hearing impairment. It was diagnosed only when Puja was two-and-a-half years old.
"Initially, we thought she had something wrong with her throat. Unlike other babies she was having trouble making sounds, and trying to say simple words like 'papa'. We took her to a doctor, and then came to know of her actual condition," she said.
However, the Shahs took this news in their stride and decided to offer the best they could afford for their little daughter. Alpa Shah even went to California to attend a three week training for parents of special children.
"It helped me a lot in dealing with the situation. We decided to label everything in our house, so that Puja can read and understand what is what. We labelled our furniture, windows, common appliances -- almost everything," Mrs Shah recollected.
Puja's mother also used to accompany her to school initially. She would constantly interact with her daughter's batchmates in order to sensitise them toward Puja's condition. She also helped and encouraged Puja to master lip-reading, her only mode of communication with others.
"It was very tough. We had to repeat even the most simple words quite a number of times for her to pick up. But we did not give up; neither did she," she said looking at Puja, who nodded in agreement.
Neelam Patel, Puja's next door neighbour is the one who take cares of Puja whenever Mrs Shah has to go out. Neelam also spends considerable time with Puja, "Bahut smart hain, in fact, one of the smartest girls" she said of Puja, patting her on the back.
However Puja had to sacrifice her foremost ambition, as even hardwork and dedication have certain limits.
"Puja always wanted to take up MBBS and become a doctor, but we had to make her understand that it was not possible, since she would never be able to use a stethoscope, or hear a patient's pulse," Mrs Shah said.
But then nothing could wipe the smile off Puja's face, and she decided to follow in her father's footsteps and become an electrical engineer.
"Travel. I like to travel," Puja reminded her mother.
Since she was busy with academics, the Shah family did not take a vacation this year. But Puja is still kicked about last year's trip to South India -- they visited Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty and Kodaikanal. Puja has fallen in love with Ooty, and wants to visit the hill-station whenever she gets another chance.
The Shah family is taking it easy for the moment, as they are being bombarded with congratulatory notes and best wishes from all quarters.
Once the excitement dies down, Mrs Shah wants to invite all their close relatives, and have a family gala at their house to celebrate Puja's victory over fate -- over the deafening silence of her world.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Sivaji gold rush sweeps the globe
Every Rajnikanth [Images] release is a festival of sorts for his diehard fans. But with the superstar's latest release Sivaji: The Boss, the fans have outdone themselves.
Here is a look at what happened around the world during the release of the star's 100th Tamil movie.
From the United States to Britain, from the Gulf countries to the South Asian countries, Sivaji has ruled, with the South Indian Diaspora lapping up the film. An online booking site claimed that the opening shows across the United States were sold out within 24 hours.
'Nothing like this has ever been witnessed before. Shows in New Jersey, Chicago, Minneapolis and Virginia are experiencing unheard of sales. One of the biggest centres in the nation, San Jose/Fremont, will be opening up shortly. There is no doubt this centre will have sold out crowds in a matter of hours,' the site said.
In Chicago, for instance, the film was booked for the first 12 weekends even before its release, with fans paying up to $25 for a ticket. When Spider-Man 3 opened, the tickets were priced at $18.
The Chicago Tribune reported : After hoisting a watermelon with a flaming candle above their heads, club members smashed it to the ground as a gesture of celebration, eliciting cheers from the waiting crowd.
'This is like seeing a movie with Brad Pitt [Images] or watching something like Pirates of the Caribbean,' the report quoted a fan as saying.
One expatriate fan bought popcorn for $50 and distributed it to the audience in a hall in the US. Generous? No, crazy is the word, for the popcorn was to substitute confetti and used whenever Rajni appeared on screen!
'There was this guy in the theatre who wore a Sivaji-style wig, and entertained people even before the movie started. There was another guy, who spent around $50 on popcorn and distributed it to everyone so people could throw it in the air when Rajni filled the screen. Another gang brought camphor and pumpkins to show to a Rajni poster. They started dancing and yelling way before the film started,' a fan wrote in.
A theatre in Singapore, struggling to keep up with overflowing fans, is reported to have screened 15 shows in a day.
'Every film I will not miss and I see them at least one time -- minimum one time, and maximum up to 10 or 20 times. He is my very favourite actor. He is a very good inspiration for me. I love him,' the report quoted a fan as saying.
Trade data from Britain shows Sivaji overtaking Fantastic Four, Ocean's 13 and the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean!
Sivaji, which is being shown only in 12 screens in Britain, has fetched one of the biggest starting collections ever on the island and has put to shame the much hyped Yash Raj film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, which has only collected nearly Rs 23 million despite being shown in 47 screens,' the report said.
Movie halls in Abu Dhabi did not fail to cash in on Sivaji mania either. They hiked ticket prices and sure enough, the fans didn't mind.
'I have watched the movie four times and I will watch a few more times. Price hike does not make a difference because such movies deserve it,' said the Khaleej Times quoted a caterer named Gopinath as saying.
While Gopinath would have burned a hole in his pocket, about a thousand labourers in Dubai were in luck. The Rajni World Welfare Trust, an NGO, will distribute tickets free of costs to the workers, including housemaids.
'There are many hard-working labourers in Dubai who wish to watch the movie but cannot afford it. That's why we decided to buy tickets for them,' an organiser said.
In Malaysia, like everywhere else, it broke the box office records, collecting Rs 60 lakhs on its opening day.
Earlier, fans had gone berserk when the movie's screening was delayed, causing losses running into lakhs.
'Movie fans turned violent causing thousands of dollars worth of damage in Malaysia when the screening of a new South Indian flick was delayed or cancelled,' a report said.
'In the central Selangor state, northern Perak and Penang states, police were needed to stop Friday's violence, the New Straits Times newspaper said. At the Sri Intan theatre in Klang, west of the capital Kuala Lumpur, fans destroyed speakers, tore the screen and curtains and broke chairs after the movie came to an abrupt stop midway due to a technical problem,' the report added.
And finally, fans in Japan -- where the star has an inexplicably huge following -- will get to see the movie by the end of June.
The movie will also be released in South Africa sometime around the end of June for which 50 prints are in the making.
Here is a look at what happened around the world during the release of the star's 100th Tamil movie.
From the United States to Britain, from the Gulf countries to the South Asian countries, Sivaji has ruled, with the South Indian Diaspora lapping up the film. An online booking site claimed that the opening shows across the United States were sold out within 24 hours.
'Nothing like this has ever been witnessed before. Shows in New Jersey, Chicago, Minneapolis and Virginia are experiencing unheard of sales. One of the biggest centres in the nation, San Jose/Fremont, will be opening up shortly. There is no doubt this centre will have sold out crowds in a matter of hours,' the site said.
In Chicago, for instance, the film was booked for the first 12 weekends even before its release, with fans paying up to $25 for a ticket. When Spider-Man 3 opened, the tickets were priced at $18.
The Chicago Tribune reported : After hoisting a watermelon with a flaming candle above their heads, club members smashed it to the ground as a gesture of celebration, eliciting cheers from the waiting crowd.
'This is like seeing a movie with Brad Pitt [Images] or watching something like Pirates of the Caribbean,' the report quoted a fan as saying.
One expatriate fan bought popcorn for $50 and distributed it to the audience in a hall in the US. Generous? No, crazy is the word, for the popcorn was to substitute confetti and used whenever Rajni appeared on screen!
'There was this guy in the theatre who wore a Sivaji-style wig, and entertained people even before the movie started. There was another guy, who spent around $50 on popcorn and distributed it to everyone so people could throw it in the air when Rajni filled the screen. Another gang brought camphor and pumpkins to show to a Rajni poster. They started dancing and yelling way before the film started,' a fan wrote in.
A theatre in Singapore, struggling to keep up with overflowing fans, is reported to have screened 15 shows in a day.
'Every film I will not miss and I see them at least one time -- minimum one time, and maximum up to 10 or 20 times. He is my very favourite actor. He is a very good inspiration for me. I love him,' the report quoted a fan as saying.
Trade data from Britain shows Sivaji overtaking Fantastic Four, Ocean's 13 and the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean!
Sivaji, which is being shown only in 12 screens in Britain, has fetched one of the biggest starting collections ever on the island and has put to shame the much hyped Yash Raj film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, which has only collected nearly Rs 23 million despite being shown in 47 screens,' the report said.
Movie halls in Abu Dhabi did not fail to cash in on Sivaji mania either. They hiked ticket prices and sure enough, the fans didn't mind.
'I have watched the movie four times and I will watch a few more times. Price hike does not make a difference because such movies deserve it,' said the Khaleej Times quoted a caterer named Gopinath as saying.
While Gopinath would have burned a hole in his pocket, about a thousand labourers in Dubai were in luck. The Rajni World Welfare Trust, an NGO, will distribute tickets free of costs to the workers, including housemaids.
'There are many hard-working labourers in Dubai who wish to watch the movie but cannot afford it. That's why we decided to buy tickets for them,' an organiser said.
In Malaysia, like everywhere else, it broke the box office records, collecting Rs 60 lakhs on its opening day.
Earlier, fans had gone berserk when the movie's screening was delayed, causing losses running into lakhs.
'Movie fans turned violent causing thousands of dollars worth of damage in Malaysia when the screening of a new South Indian flick was delayed or cancelled,' a report said.
'In the central Selangor state, northern Perak and Penang states, police were needed to stop Friday's violence, the New Straits Times newspaper said. At the Sri Intan theatre in Klang, west of the capital Kuala Lumpur, fans destroyed speakers, tore the screen and curtains and broke chairs after the movie came to an abrupt stop midway due to a technical problem,' the report added.
And finally, fans in Japan -- where the star has an inexplicably huge following -- will get to see the movie by the end of June.
The movie will also be released in South Africa sometime around the end of June for which 50 prints are in the making.
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